Hold Me In Your Arms
by levitategravity
Summary: In simplest terms, fight or flight is a basic reflex for humans. Tris had too much to run from in the small town of Clarion, Iowa. So to escape her past she runs to ClearWater High, a prestigious boarding school in the middle of Chicago. She expects a new life with new friends and new enemies. She continues to cover her past until she meets someone who has as much to hide as her.
1. Of Fairy Lights and Hallway Fights

**GUESS WHO'S BACK BITCHES**

_It's been a really long time but everything is back on track._

_I'm only going to say this once but it applies throughout the entire story. I do not own Divergent or any of it's characters._

_So without further ado..._

* * *

It seemed pretty unnecessary to move at first, but when Tris got to the city she was in awe of the large buildings, the buzz that seemed to flow through the streets, and she realized that she needed to get out of that farm town a long time ago. Chicago was large, much larger than Clarion, Iowa, where she lived since birth. The small roads and minuscule population was no competition to Chicago.

She spent the ride staring out the window at the scenery or sleeping (she got up at four okay?). The flight from Clarion to O'hare airport was 2 hours so she got up early, grabbed the small bag of necessities that she pack and said goodbye to her family. Considering it was the early morning, none of them actually wanted to drive her to the nearest airport so she got a taxi and waved goodbye to her home.

The airport was a ghost town, a couple people here and there, but seriously, no one wanted to go to Clarion for vacation. On the 2 hour flight, she slept next to a woman who kept nudging Tris's elbows and crinkling her bag of chips. So when the flight landed, Tris didn't feel the slightest bit bad about shoving past the woman and getting out of that fucking metal death trap.

Tris immediately found a yellow taxi cab which was stolen by some dude in a fancy looking suit, but that didn't stop her from spewing "fuck you, you prick!" at the cab as it sped off. Her first days in Chicago weren't going as well as she hoped, but it wasn't that disappointing compared to the majority of her life.

When she got to the campus at 8, there were students swarming the large school. The campus, like the rest of Chicago, was vast. It was very elegant with a light blue and white color scheme. The entrance had a black steel gate that opened out into the green courtyard.

Tris pressed her lips together and continued walking onto the pavement of the long entryway. She pulled the hood of her jacket over her head and stared at the ground in a futile attempt to be unseen. She was almost to the gate when someone decided to slam their shoulder into hers.

"Hey! Watch it jackass!" She yelled, turning around to glare at the asshole.

"Try looking up, bitch!" The boy shouted back at her. He continued to stare at his phone, not paying any attention to his surroundings. He was, at least, a foot taller than she was, which pissed her off even more. Tris continued to glare at his navy blue beanie, making sure to shout "Douchebag!" in his direction (which didn't help the whole "unseen" thing she was doing) before walking up the stairs.

The courtyard was much large than she perceived. Picnic tables littered the grassy area along with a large fountain in the middle. Cement pathways led from the fountain into each of the buildings surrounding it. Tris maneuvered her way through the crowd and managed to find a tour guide that was unoccupied. Well, Tris assumed the girl was a tour guide from the light blue shirt, dark wash jeans and the small name tag that read "hello! My name is Marlene!".

"Um excuse me?"

The tour-guide, Marlene, turned around and stared at her with big eyes. She was pretty, sleek blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, and tall. Tris internally rolled her eyes, she was just like the rest of these frickin people.

She smiled brightly, "What can I do for you?" Her voice was pretty and delicate. Tris could easily imagine that she was a singer.

"Yes, um" Tris searched for her name tag again. "Marlene. I would like to find..." Tris ended up shuffling through her bag (because she's an unprepared fuck) for the package of information the school sent to her house last week. "I would like to find my dorm room? It's 186?"

Marlene smiled, revealing perfect, white, straight teeth. Everything about her screamed "basic" so Tris put on a fake smile and pretended to be a lot more social (and interested) that she actually was. "Okay, do you want the tour as well?"

Tris just shrugged, feeling tired. "Sure. Why the fuck not?"

Marlene's smile never faltered as she led her away from the mass of people and into one of the many buildings. The room itself was immense, the high ceilings and bright walls bounced off the sleek black tables that were spread across the room. It was the nicest cafeteria Tris had ever seen, but Marlene didn't seem to think too much of it as she continued walking. They marched out of the cafeteria and through the rows of pale gray lockers that looked strangely normal compared to everything else in the school. Still pretty impressive, though.

It wasn't until they came to a stop when Marlene finally spoke. "So because your room number is 186, you're going to be in Hallway B because that's the dorm building you're in. We have about 600 boarding students and 300 day students. The boarding students are the first three floors, hall A and B and C. And the day students use the fourth floor, hall D." She explained, leading Tris up the stairs to the second floor. She experimentally peered up only to find layers and layers of the same white stairs and she sighed.

"So, um. How far up does this thing go?" Tris asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Uh. First three floors are lockers, and lounges," Tris nodded politely, partly distracted by the random art pieces that littered the walls of the stairs. "We do things a little differently here, each floor is a different subject. For example the fifth floor is all modern languages, the sixth floor is the teacher's lounge, the seventh floor is science, and so on. We have an information packet with your stuff if you get confused."

"Sounds good," Tris said, even though she only caught parts of it. She continued to admire the random drawings which were actually pretty good. "How's the art program?"

"Well," She started to drag her fingertips along the rows of lockers. "We've got 12 different art classes ranging from 2-D art, 3-D art, art history, and digital art." She stopped walking once we reached locker the #300s lockers. "This is where most people from your dorm will be," She gestured around at the hall. "And this is your locker," She said, tapping the locker 372. "So just multiply your room number by 2 and you got your locker number. And this one right here," She started to tap her pale pink finger nail on locker 371, which was covered in black paint with the words "BLURRY FACE" and a bunch of random scribbles written with a metallic marker. "This is your room mate. You see, this could've been your's but I assumed that you didn't have the chance to mark your's yet."

"Mark?"

"Just decorate it basically." Marlene nodded and smirked at the drawings. She obviously knew who Tris's roommate was. "So you might want to actually open your locker, the code is on one of the letters that they gave you."

Tris sighed exasperated at the fact that she would have to rummage through everything. She shoved her hand into her bag, grabbing any random paper she found. Eventually, she found her code, it was a little crumpled and torn but still readable.

Tris fiddled with the lock, reading the code before twisting the dial a couple times (many times). She popped open the locker to find, notebooks, textbooks, folders, pencils, pens, and an expensive looking calculator. "I need all of this?"

"Mhmm," Marlene confirmed, then continued to walk towards the stairs.

"So do they ever think about getting an elevator or something?" Tris asked once we passed the teacher/student lounge, annoyed with the numbing feeling in her legs.

"Well, here at ClearWater High, we believe in maximizing our bodies, our minds, and our soul," She replied, sarcasm oozing out of every word. Tris smiled a bit, glad that this girl wasn't as basic as she seemed. "But we do have an elevator for faculty that is only assessable if you have a key card. And if you're lucky, sometimes teachers lend it to you to get stuff from their rooms." She smirked, pulling a bright blue card out of her back pocket. A smile broke out on her face and her smirk turned into a loud laugh. "C'mon, I'll let you take it down." Her demeanor was very unpredictable with an appearance of sass once and a while, and Tris could get onboard with that. She was beginning to feel bad that she judged the Marlene too soon.

"So, over we have bathrooms and vending machines on each floor as well as an infirmary in the fitness centers and the bottom floor. The office is on the bottom floor as well if you need to talk to the principle or something." The Marlene gestured around at random rooms and objects before turning around to face Tris. "So any questions?"

"Yeah. Where's the elevator?"

Marlene broke out into a smile. "Right this way."

Tris was relieved that the elevator was quick. Less room for awkward silence which would've been which she desperately tried to avoid.

Marlene smiled at her again when the doors opened, grabbing onto the strap of Tris's bag and pulling her forward at a fast pace. Probably because Tris would've drowned in the sea of people so she didn't complain. "Any questions?"

"So that's just the building for school?"

Marlene continued walking at a fast pace until they reached the courtyard. "Yes, it's our largest building out of all of them except for our second fitness center, but that has the football field and a pool so that's understandable." She sat down on the edge of the water fountain and stared at Tris with a blank face. "You wanna see the fitness center?"

Tris adjusted her messenger bag on her shoulder. "Sure."

She could tell the building was significantly smaller than the school section. It was, at least, three levels shorter and had 1/3 of the area missing. The doors opened automatically as they walked into the air conditioned room. Marlene strode past the lady at the front desk, waving a polite 'hello'. She continued to walk until they reached the elevators, stepping inside and motioning at Tris to follow.

Marlene clasped her hands together and turned around to face Tris, who was still looking around in an attempt to familiarize herself with the new surroundings. "First level is reception if you want to book any classes or any spa appointments." She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Classes are not my thing."

"Damn it. Okay, I'm stuck with Christina." She mumbled, pressing the 'two' button in the elevator. "So do you want to go inside and check each floor out?"

"Depends on what's on each floor."

"Second level is a yoga studio. Third is our classes, which is like kickboxing, cross-fit, etc." The heavy silver doors opened up and she walked out towards one of the rooms. "Fourth is our main gym area. And the fifth is our spa. Which I personally love, they have amazing mud masks."

"Good to know, I don't mind massages."

"Mhhhmm," The yoga studio was smaller than she expected, the room was filled with shelves that had blocks and colorful yoga mats. As well as some essential oils and other products. Tucked neatly in the corner was a small desk. And there were about four or five doors that filled up the remainder of the room. "So you sign up for yoga sessions here or in the lobby, and we have four different types of yoga you can sign up for; hot yoga, kundalini yoga, restorative yoga and hybrid yoga."

"You do yoga?"

"Only when I'm stressed. Which is all the time," She sighed, pressing her thumb into her palm. "Next floor?"

"Uhh, just take me up to the fitness center and I can look at the rest some other time."

She smiled and pressed the button. "Sure thing. So our fitness center is part of two, the second one is all the way across the school, it has volleyball courts, tennis courts, basketball courts, football field and track, and a pool with a diving section. As well as a locker room." She babbled, trying to fill the empty space which Tris was glad for.

The doors dinged open and she stepped out into the bright room. Tris stepped out of the elevator in awe, she strode past Marlene to one of the many many windows. They looked out into the campus and the view made Tris sigh. Screw yoga, this relaxed her. She finally turned around to take in the rest of her surroundings. A section of weights was tucked against a wall and different machines were lined up in neat rows. The florescent lights shined off the silver equipment and the fans were off.

Marlene stepped up next to her, looking back out at the view. "It overlooks the gardens and if you look really far you can see the football field." She murmured and Tris just nodded.

Tris finally glanced around at all the people in the fitness center and realized the increase of heat. The center wasn't that full but had enough bodies to bring up the temperature to the point where she regretted wearing an oversized hoodie over her bra instead of putting on an actual shirt. One of the boys that were bench pressing glanced up at them smiled and then proceeded to walk over. Tris kept glancing around, wondering who the hell he was walking to. She soon realized that he was just looking at Marlene, who was giving him the same dopey smile.

When he reached them he brought her into a hug, she didn't seem to mind that he was sweaty and smelly. And then they kissed and Tris shifted around uncomfortably, she was sick of PDA already.

Marlene pulled away and blushed but still remained in his embrace.

"Right sorry," Marlene said, her voice hoarse. "This is Uriah, my boyfriend-"

"Figured that out." Tris murmured sarcastically.

Uriah laughed. It was loud and energetic and Tris automatically knew this guy was gonna be okay. He was tall and leaner than buff, he had tan skin that shined with sweat and he was wearing a dark gray cutoff tank top. But what really caught Tris was his smile, it was bright and easy, holding no secrets or lies. He had a demeanor that sorta drew people in and Tris realized that right away.

"Well, Uriah this is, uh…" Her voice trailed off. "Wow, I don't even know your name."

"Tris."

"Tris..." She repeated. "Pretty. I'm Marlene." She smiled again and turned back to Uriah. "I'm going to go show Tris to her room, come by later?"

Uriah nodded and kissed her again, pulling her into his sweaty embrace. They were one of those couples.

"Okay great!" She said with a cheerful attitude. "Now go burn some calories."

"I can think of something else we can do that burns calories." Uriah replied and winked.

"Uh huh." Marlene retorted. "If you're lucky." She tapped his ass and walked back to Tris, where she stood, watching uncomfortably. She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly and she felt her cheeks warm up. Her jacket was heating up and she just wanted to get out of the room.

"Can we go now?" Tris asked in what she hoped was a firm voice.

"Sure thing." Marlene replied just as cheerful as before, wrapping an arm around Tris's. And surprisingly she didn't really mind. "I know it's tough going to a new school, and I can see that you're very uncomfortable with some stuff. But you can always talk to me, okay?" She led Tris back to the elevator and down to the courtyard.

"Thank you." Tris said after arriving in the courtyard and she actually meant it. A small smile graced her face and Marlene just laughed and walked towards the fountain.

"You're different. I like that, we're gonna be great friends. "

"Okay, Marlene," Tris started, smiling at her kindness. Oh yeah, she felt real bad for judging her. "So um, where are the dorms?" She tried to glance around for the building they didn't visit but they all sort of blended together to form one big blob of horny high schoolers.

"Well, when you first walk in here you see the fountain, to the left of that is the fitness center and gardens, to the right is the school building and straight ahead is the main dorms. There are 3 main buildings, Dorm A, on the left, is all boys. Dorm B, in the middle, is co-ed. And Dorm C is all girls. There are 10 floors in each dorm and 10 rooms on each floor, so that means that there are 200 kids in each dorm. Okay?"

Tris nodded, trying to keep up.

"So that means we have 600 lockers for all of our boarding students, granted not all of them are in use, but we still have them. So Dorm A has lockers 1-200, B has 201-400, and C has 401-600. And you remember what I said about the division thing right?"

Tris nodded again.

"Okay, so the dorm buildings have more than one entrance and exit, so finding your way to the fitness center and stuff should be easy." She pointed from each of the buildings in an attempt to verify the special shortcuts as they started walking towards the B dorm. "There are 10 rooms on each floor," She said, weaving her way around the herd of students that were unpacking. "And because you're in the B dorm you start at room 100. So the first floor is rooms 101-110, the second floor is 111-120, and so on. So you're on level nine because 181-190. Does that make sense?"

"Got it." Tris confirmed, narrowly dodging a shampoo bottle that some dude was using as a football. There weren't many people in the elevators, around three at most, but they were talking extremely loud. And Tris was getting irritated so naturally she slammed her shoulder against that one guy who was getting too close into her personal space. Marlene noticed, pressing her hand onto Tris's arm and pulling her out when the doors opened.

"You've got a temper," She mentioned after they started walking.

"Yeah I know," Tris mumbled, shrugging her arm off.

"Do you have a boyfriend by any chance? Because I know the perfect guy for you, like 6"4', very attractive, moody-"

"Not interested, sorry," Tris said quickly, shutting down the idea before any planning could take place.

Marlene just shrugged, stopping at one of the doors. "So in your packet, there are a few things that will help you get started. You will get a new schedule of activities or events each week to keep you up to date. I believe you have a key card and a student ID already, as well as a student credit card. That's for almost anything in our facilities and the shops on the other side of campus-"

"There's fricking shops here?" Tris asked astound by the possibility of not taking the bus every time she wanted to get something to eat.

Marlene smiled, her eyes lighting up at the thought of another shopping buddy. "Yes, I believe they have Adidas, Under Armor, PacSun, Aeropostale, Victoria Secret as well as other drug stores. And oh my god the food is great, some pizza, Chinese takeout, it's a nice change from the school crap. I'm sure there's much than just that, those are just off the top of my head." She pulled a pen out of her back pocket and grabbed the packet from Tris's hands. She started scribbling numbers onto it and Tris realized that it was her number. "Call me if you want to hang out. I'm in room 145 if you ever want to talk." She smiled for the billionth time that day. "So tonight is just for settling in. Orientation is tomorrow then school the next day." She sounded genuinely happy, and Tris found herself smiling despite the fact that it was school. "Well, see you soon Tris."

"You too Marlene." She disappeared down the hall, waving goodbye. She wasn't too bad. And she definitely wasn't that girly, which Tris could appreciate. She didn't have many girlfriends.

Tris mentally prepared herself before sliding her key card in and entering the room. But what she saw, no amount of mental preparation could have helped her, or anyone for that matter.

First of all, she saw a girl. Which was a bit confusing because it was a co-ed room, but then she noticed the mystery girl's clothes or lack thereof. Luckily there was a large blanket covering her lower half, unluckily there was something moving underneath that blanket. Most likely a boy.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Tris felt her voice go up a couple octaves as she averted her eyes.

The girl quickly pulled the blankets up to cover her chest and her face matched Tris's expression quite well.

"Um, hi?" She blushed profusely. Not a moment later, another person popped their head out from underneath the covers. And surprise, it was a boy.

"Hey, roomie." The boy said, flashing Tris a smile. "Wassup, I'm Zeke and this is Shauna." He kissed her cheek as she hid, then held his hand out for Tris to shake. He obviously had no shame.

Tris just stared at it in disgust. "Do you think I want to touch your hands right now?"

He stared at his hand for a second, realization coming to his face. Zeke hid his hand back underneath the blanket and had the decency to give her a sheepish face. "Good point. My bad."

"Uhh, we can catch up later. I'm sure you're busy, so just point me to my room and I'm going to unpack. Hopefully, you will be done by then," She sighed, making her way to the other side of the room and turning her red face out of their sight.

"Please wash that blanket and get rid of that couch. Okay?"

"Roger that, your room is to the right. But before you go, what's your name?"

"Tris," She mumbled, keeping her head low.

"Okay, remember sock on the door if you got any boys over."

"Because you're so strict with that." Tris pointed out and he shrugged, cracking a grin. "So I'm uh, gonna go." She continued to awkwardly shuffle out of the room and towards her door.

"Nice meeting you!" Shauna shouted.

"I saw your boobs!" Tris shouted back, closing the door, praying that the walls were thick.

* * *

The room was absolutely huge, for a dorm. This school definitely had the funds to splurge on basically everything. The pale gray walls reflected off shadows from the fairy lights that were hanging from them. There was a large, empty, mahogany bookshelf in the corner and a stainless white dresser right next to it. A long mirror was embedded in the wall, but you could slide it to the side to reveal a small closet.

Another white door stood next to it, leading into the bathroom, which was just as impressive as the room. A long counter space with 4 lights spread along the wall. The tub was long and circular, a shower was tucked away in the corner with glass walls. And a toilet was isolated in a closet-like space. The ground was tile which was different from the hardwood floors in her room.

Tris smiled like it was Christmas and grabbed her bag, emptying it onto the white comforter (which probably would be covered in food stains by the end of the week). A jumble of papers, credit cards and clothes scattered out on the sheets. She started to organize the papers from the rest of the pile, setting them off onto the desk. She had her schedule, a guidelines book, an outline for the week, and a map of the school. She glanced at the outline for the week, casting the rest of the papers to the side.

Sunday August 9th: Orientation 8:30am - 10:30am

Monday, August 10th: First day of classes

Friday, August 14th: Back to School Party- room 145 10:00 pm

Okay simple enough.

Tris stashed any remaining papers in a drawer of the desk. She folded up the small amount of clothes she had and shut them away in the dresser and slipped her credit cards into her back pocket along with her silver phone, she could buy a wallet anytime she wanted.

"Knock, knock." A voice said through the door. Shauna peaked her head through and Tris was relieved to see she was wearing clothes. "Can I come in?"

Tris shrugged. "Sure."

She looked around the room for a second before sitting down on the bed. "Look, I'm sorry about that. He told me you weren't going to be here until later."

"It's fine. It wasn't really your fault."

"Let me make it up to you. I saw you didn't bring much," She gestured to Tris's messenger bag which lay abandoned on her desk. "So maybe I could take you out shopping?"

Tris started to protest, "I'm not really much of a shop-"

"No, really. I have friends who work there, I can get you really good deals." She pointed out. "I'm not taking no for an answer."

Tris sighed, giving in. "Okay fine," Tris glanced at the clock which read 10:30. "But you're buying food." Shauna clapped her hands together and pulled Tris into a tight hug. "Oh okay, we're hugging." Tris awkwardly put her arms around her as Shauna pulled tighter. This Shauna girl was really assertive and sort of intimidated Tris a little. She was a least 1/2 a foot taller than her and seemed like the type of person you wouldn't want to mess with. But she was her roommates girlfriend so it seemed better to get along with her if she was going to be hanging out around here.

She pulled Tris out of her embrace, her hands on her shoulders as she said. "Okay, first we have to see what you've got." Shauna sauntered over towards Tris's dresser, pulling out the drawers and staring at the contents. "Tris, this is just sad. Three sports bras, eight shirts, four pairs of jeans and spandex?" Tris, on the other hand, was perfectly content with what she had, and most of her old clothes didn't fit her anyway.

She just shrugged. "I don't need much."

"Yeah okay." Shauna scoffed then tied her hair up into a ponytail. "We're going to need at least three hours." She grabbed Tris's hand, dragging her out of the room as she groaned.

Apparently Shauna knew all the shortcuts to the school. And by shortcuts Tris meant that she got on top of the banister and slid down nine levels, laughing the whole way. She must've been doing this for a long time because no stared or scolded her, the hoard of students just continued walking on like this was perfectly normal. Tris just walked down the stairs like an actual normal person. Mainly because if she tried to do that she would most likely fall and break her neck.

Tris met her down at the bottom, where she was waiting patiently. "Do you always do that?"

"Always. Faster than the stairs." She hooked her arm with Tris's, dragging her towards the entrance. Her dirty blonde hair bounced as she walked, taking long strides that Tris had trouble keeping up with. She never really understood the concept of hooking arms or holding hands, it seemed pointless. But she was kind of glad that Shauna was holding onto her, without it, she probably would've fallen and given herself a concussion.

Shauna knew her way around the school, pointing at the various buildings and what to avoid when to avoid it. She led Tris towards the gardens, another shortcut she picked up on, and pointed towards the track and football field. "So avoid walking past the boys locker rooms at 5 pm. That's when most sports end so if you want to keep your appetite, don't go there."

"Oh and let's not forget." She pointed towards the large swimming pool. You could barely see it from the garden, just a long strip of blue and the top of the lifeguard tower. "11 am on Saturdays some of the students teach toddlers how to swim and if you wanna be a chaperone or a lifeguard for extra cash then talk to them."She babbled on about the shopping area, the cafeteria, and the study lounge until they arrived at the end of the gardens. Tris barely got a word in which she was perfectly fine with., There were stairs that led down towards the entrance of the shops, and a little to the left they could see the other entrance that wrapped around the school. It was obviously a much longer course and the garden trail cut straight through it.

Tris smiled up at her, "How long have you been going to this school?"

She thought for a moment, her eyebrows scrunched up a little and her eyes looked up at her forehead. "Uhh, three and a half years? Yeah, when I was in 8th grade I did a little summer session here so I figured it out pretty quickly." She started walking down the stair and Tris stumbled behind her, trying to find her balance.

"So, um where are we going?"

"Depends, what do you like to wear?"

"Flannels, large sweaters? Jeans? Converse?" Tris listed off bored by the change of conversation. Clothes weren't very interesting. "That sort of thing. I'm more of a comfort girl."

She shook her head at Tris. "We could include a lot of those, but what's your style?"

"What do you mean?"

She came to a stop. "Okay for me, my style is 'sporty but girly, I have a boyfriend, and I could still kick your ass in these shoes'." She gestured to her peach blouse, high waisted black shorts, and three-inch ankle boots.

Tris nodded, obliviously. "Well, I don't know what my style is."

Shauna pursed her lips. "Well I think it says 'I don't want to try, I like sports, I have a boyfriend, don't look don't touch'." She raised an eyebrow, "How'd I do?" She asked clasping her hands together and rocking on her heels.

It was almost comical how everyone kept thinking the same things. "No boyfriend."

"Aw." She murmured. "I don't see why, I think you're very pretty," She pulled at a strand of her black hair. "Even if this isn't your real color." She let the strand sift between her fingers before crossing her arms over her chest in an "explain" gesture.

Tris sighed, pulling her hair onto her left shoulder. "Well, I guess I just wanted a change. How'd you know?"

Shauna smiled brightly at her, "Your eyelashes are a light brown which either means you're blonde or a light brunette." She said, hooking her arm with Tris's again. "I think you would be prettier as a blonde. But c'mon, Christina is almost done with her shift."

"Who's Christina?" Tris asked as she dragged her towards a large building with a black and pink color scheme. We were too far away to see the sign but the large posters gave away what we would be shopping for.

Shauna got a faraway look on her face. "She's magical," She said wistfully, nodding her head. The words "Victoria's Secret" in bold black lettering appeared as we got closer to the store. Tris groaned.

"Really?" She sighed, exasperated.

Shauna turned to face her, hands on hips and blue eyes calculating. "Yes really." She mimicked. "If you are going to just wear sports bras then you should get good quality ones that make your boobs look amazing when you take your shirt off. And you look like a sensible person so you're definitely hiding something underneath that jacket." She winked towards her chest and Tris swatted her away. Shauna just cackled and led her into the air-conditioned store. It was very hot outside and the cool air felt nice on her sticky skin.

"Plus," Shauna dragged her towards the nearest underwear display. "You could get fitted and get at least a couple of new, actual bras. And let's not forget some cute underwear." She flung a lacy purple pair towards her face and Tris smacked out of the air. She snorted, not in a cute, adorable way. More in like a laughing, 'I don't know I do this' type of snort. It was weird to see her have a flaw. "I know that look," She said, staring at Tris's expression. "I know, I snort when I laugh, it's bad."

"No, no. I like it. It makes you more human."

"What? Did you think I was a robot or something?" She grabbed a shopping bag and started to pile underwear in. "Extra small?"

Tris picked up a pair of red boy-shorts and shoved them into the bag. "Well no, it's just cool to figure out what's wrong with people." She started to stare at the display of lacy bras, getting lost in the girly atmosphere. "Extra small," She confirmed.

She grabbed one of the bras and held it up to Tris's chest. "Hmmm. What size are you?"

"Not sure, never been measured."

"I'll be right back." Shauna dropped it in the bag and sauntered over another room, leaving her alone with the bag. Tris looked around, lost. The last time she was in a mall was when her aunt came to visit when I was 12, she bought her a skateboard and dragged her around the mall until she was done shopping. It wasn't too bad, but Tris did get in trouble for punching a boy who knocked her over. But this was different, this was way different. There were hordes of girls and the occasional bored or excited boyfriend. The entire store seemed to go on and on, like an endless maze of white girls and yoga pants.

"You okay?" Tris turned around, wide-eyed. "I'm not going to make any sudden movements." The girl looked around her age, short black hair and olive skin. There was a measuring tape around her neck, signaling that she was an employee. The corners of her mouth were turned up in an amused smile.

"Sorry, my friend sort of ditched me. I'm a little out of place."

The girl scoffed. "Really? Well, I'm sure your friend will be back soon. I'm Christina."

My eyes lit up. "Christina!" Tris exclaimed, pointing at her. "You know Shauna?"

"Yeah? She's a real close friend of mine."

"She said that I needed help shopping? She also said you were magical."

Christina popped her hip out and placed her hand on it. "Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint. What can I do for you?" Her smile was bright and confident and Tris could tell that she was the hyper one.

Tris searched for the right words but then opted to gesture to her chest area. "Um, Shauna said I needed to get fit?"

Christina pursed her lips and stared, twisting a strand of her dark her around her finger. "Well, how bout we go over to the fitting area, I'm sure that Shauna is there already." She sauntered over to the back of the store and motioned for Tris to follow her. Christina walked through a doorway, directing her over to the large chair in the center of dressing rooms, where Shauna was sitting.

She jumped up and ran over to Christina, pulling her into a hug. "Yay! Lynn said you already got off your shift."

"Well I was about to leave, but then I saw a lost looking little puppy girl-"

"Hey!" Tris interrupted.

"So obviously, I need to help her." Christina continued, sending a fake glare in Tris's direction. "She hiding something under that jacket?"

Shauna nodded. "Definitely, the sensible ones are the saucy ones."

Tris groaned into her hands. "Oh my god."

Christina laughed. "Off with the jacket," She pushed Tris into one of the stalls. "I'm going to be seeing you in multiple bras and basically, be staring your boobs in the face so get comfortable."

Tris heard Shauna's laugh in the distance and snickered at her snort, pulling off her thick gray jacket. "Okay, I'm ready," She called out.

The door opened and Christina came into the small room with her. "Arms out, like a T." Christina started to wrap the tape around my ribs, above Tris's breasts then right over.

"Shauna, you were right!" Christina glanced up at Tris, smiling. Tris could hear a faint 'yes' from the other side of the door. "I'm going to get you some bras," She closed the door behind her. The room was very bright, the walls painted a light pink and white, it had a very dollhouse vibe.

Christina was very nice and made Tris feel comfortable, which was something Tris wasn't really used to. And the whole "bra" thing was pretty quick and painless, Christina did most of the shopping, shoving random lacy articles into her shopping bag and smiling brightly. And Shauna was pretty nice too, but a lot more sass than Christina.

Two hours later, Christina checked Tris out and gave her an employee discount, raising her eyebrows suggestively at the amount of stuff they got. "I got you a two for one deal, a free tote bag, and a 50 dollar gift card for buying more than 150 dollars of merchandise."

"Whoa, these things cost 150 dollars?"

"You bought four regular bras, ten pairs of underwear, six sports bras, four shirts, and three pairs of pants. You're lucky it's only four hundred."

Tris sighed, pulling out her newly bought wallet that Shauna forced her to buy. "Peer pressure." She mumbled and stuck her tongue out. Tris was starting to feel a lot more comfortable around them. Shauna was more confident and bossy then anything else and Christina was more girly and hyper and insane. It was odd how they balanced each other out, but it worked. "So where to next?" Tris asked, turning to Shauna who was immersed by the map in her hands.

"Okay we have to go to Lulu Lemon, Hollister," Christina nodded in agreement. "American Eagle, Bath &amp; Body Works, Aeropostale, Forever 21… How into band shirts are you?"

"Like Fall Out Boy? Or Green Day? Or Panic! At The Disco?"

They both stared at her blankly before turning back to the map."Okay so then we're _definitely_ going Hot Topic, PacSun, H&amp;M, Sephora, LUSH-"

"Lush? That sounds like a laundry detergent."

Christina looked aghast. "You've never been to LUSH? It's only the greatest place in the world."

Tris shrugged. "I barely know any of these places. H&amp;M sounds like a candy store, American Eagle sounds like a place where you would buy a grill-"

Christina gasped. "Oh baby, we've got a lot of work to do."

Shauna nodded in agreement. "And we have to be done by six if we want to get coffee."

"Why at six? And it's already noon, it's gonna take six hours?" Tris asked, signing the receipt Christina handed her.

Shauna looked towards Christina with a shit eating grin. "Oh you know, that's the time that Chris here likes to stalk Mr. Hampton while he's on his shift. And _babe_, you have zero clothes so it's our job to make sure you look hot as hell."

Christina smacked her in the stomach and started to bag everything up. "I wouldn't call it stalking. It's more of a routine."

"Hmmm." Shauna hummed. "Then you talk about how great his ass is."

"I know a lot more about you and Zeke than you do about Will and me." She walked around the counter, handing Tris her stuff.

"This sounds pretty good." Tris smirked as Shauna glared at Christina.

"Don't even get me started on what happened on the Ferris wheel," Christina said accusingly.

"Oh my god? Did they break it?" Tris asked.

"No, but they did get banned. I mean, they were basically fuc-"

"We can talk about this later." Shauna cut in, glaring at Christina in a 'we will never talk about this again or I dump you as my friend' way.

She just laughed. "Where are we going to next, Captain Shauna?"

* * *

Christina had crazy stamina. Both Shauna and Tris gave up at four hours, but Christina kept going. It was like she got high off the feeling of spending all her money. Shauna just shrugged when she brought it up.

"We only do this a couple times a year. You're just gonna have to deal."

"Shopping is not my thing."

She glanced at the extreme amount of bags hanging from my arms. "Could've fooled me." She snickered and pulled Tris ahead in an attempt to catch up with Christina.

"Is this our last store?" Tris asked, picking up what looked like a slab of rock.

"Yup. You probably shouldn't touch that."

"Why?"

She gently pried it out of herhands "That's soap."

"Oh. I thought it was a rock."

"Why would they sell rocks?"

"I don't know, this is a weird store." She led Tris towards what looked like a row of barrels filled with powdery spheres. "Is this crack?"

She snorted, picking up a purple one. "No, these are bath bombs. Grab a couple."

Tris reached her hand out hesitantly towards a baby blue one. "They smell nice." She noted.

Shauna nodded in agreement. "So what do you need? Shampoo? Lotion? Toothpaste? Face masks?"

"Uhh, all of those? I guess?" Tris shrugged.

"You really don't know how to shop."

"What gave it away?"

"Okay, go find Christina, she's probably around here. I'll get you stuff."

Tris nodded, relieved. "Thanks." She walked through the aisles of the store, finding Christina at the shampoo section.

"Hey!" She said.

"Hi, whatcha getting?"

She scrambled through her bags. "I already paid, but I got soap, shaving cream, lotion, teeth stuff, and conditioner bars. What about you?"

"Uhh, Shauna's getting that stuff for me."

She nodded, picking through the random soaps. "What's your favorite color?"

"What?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"I got that part, but why do you need to know?"

Christina smirked. "Is it a big secret that no one knows about?"

"No?"

"Then tell me."

Tris sighed. "Cabernet."

She groaned. "Oh my god literally perfect."

"What is?"

"You and my friend, don't worry about it."

Tris glanced back, looking for Shauna. "Okay?"

"You should dye your hair back."

"Damn it." Tris murmured.

She turned towards Tris, placing both hands on her hips. "Why'd you dye it?"

"I don't know, I wanted change?"

"You're dying it back."

Tris felt like Christina was more of a 'don't argue it's going to happen' type of person so she just nodded.

"Here is your stuff." Shauna swooped in, putting a bag of various items into Tris's already full arms. "I already paid for it." She tapped Tris's nose with a small 'boop'.

She then turned to Christina. "Are we done shopping? Please?"

Christina cracked a smile. "Yeah, we're done. Let's get coffee."

"Oh thank god." Shauna basically barreled out of the store, with us in tow.

The Starbucks was much larger than Tris expected, it was about 2/3 the size of the Victoria's Secret and covered in white and army green.

"Damn." She muttered.

"They've renovated four times. Students come here a lot so they needed more space." Shauna muttered back.

The sound of an engine revving made Tris glance back from the store. A black Kawasaki Ninja, 2013 stood in the middle of the parking lot.

"Nice bike," She said to the boy on the pristine motorcycle. His head was covered by a black helmet so he gave her a small head nod and a wave.

Shauna gave her a shit eating grin so Tris nudged her shoulder and pushed past her.

"Biker boy, huh?"

"Not interested."

"Hmmm." She murmured, locking her elbow with Tris's. "Okay then."

"Hey whatcha guys want?" Christina asked, pulling out her wallet as they walked into the large building. There were plenty of unoccupied seats and a small line to the barista.

"Venti lemon ale with one pump raspberry syrup, one pump of vanilla syrup, a half pump of peppermint syrup and thai walls," Tris said automatically, digging through the bags for her credit card.

Christina gave her a weird look. "What?"

"I can order for myself if you want."

She nodded in response, turning towards the barista. "Hey Will," She said in a voice much different than the one she used to speak to Tris. She sent a sideways glance to Shauna who seemed to understand, responding with a wink and a head nudge towards this "Will".

"Hey, your usual?"

Christina blushed slightly. "Yeah, that would be great." She fumbled through her purse and pulled out a crisp 10 dollar bill.

"My shift's almost over," Will started, glancing over at the clock. "We could hang out or something."

Christina smiled. "I'm kind of busy right now-"

"Oh okay, that's fine, it was only if you wanted to-"

"When I'm not-"

"and you're obviously busy,"

"You didn't-

"whatever is convenient for yo-"

"Will," she said firmly, crossing her hands over her chest. He froze, mid blush and sheepishly shoved his hands into his jean pockets. "I'm a little bit busy right now because I'm shopping with my friends," she gestured to two who were standing there with amused grins. "This is Tris by the way," she placed a hand on her shoulder and Tris waved sarcastically. "She's new."

Will gave a small wave. "Hello."

"And I have a ton of bags right now, but after I drop these off at my dorm I would love to hang out with you."

Will broke out in a wide grin, his amber eyes glimmering. Oh boy, he _really_ liked her. "If you wanted, I could help you with your stuff?"

"That would be great."

"Okay. Cool, so in about ten minutes?"

"I'll be right over there." She gestured to a small table in the corner, gathering up her bags.

Tris watched her walk away, Will's lovey eyes following her. "Okay wow… that was bad."

"Really?" Will asked.

"It was like a 12-year-old boy learning about puberty type of bad."

He cursed under his breath. "Jesus."

"Don't worry, she likes you," Tris reassured, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

He blushed. "So, uh, what can I get you?"

"Venti lemon ale with one pump raspberry syrup, one pump of vanilla syrup, a half pump of peppermint syrup and thai walls."

"What?"

"Venti lemon ale, with one pump raspberry syrup, one pump of vanilla syrup, a half pump of peppermint syrup and thai walls," She repeated, slower.

"Wow, okay," He muttered under his breath. "Tris right?"

"Yup."

He smiled, reaching his hand out. "I'm Will."

Tris shook his hand, it was much bigger than her small one and basically engulfed half her wrist. Will was a summery type of handsome, tan skin, beach blonde hair, and amber eyes. He had a faint dust of freckles over his nose and was at least 6 feet tall. "If you hurt Christina I will break you," Tris muttered, deathly low under her breath.

It wasn't odd for her to be this over protective, but it was a little strange this early in the friendship. She sort of felt close to Christina, she was easy to talk to and there were no empty silences (mainly because Christina babbled straight through them) and maybe it was the fact that she made Tris feel sort of… happy?

Will nodded, slowly, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed.

Tris shook herself out of her thoughts and gathered her bags, sauntering over to Christina. And Will seemed like a nice guy, and he didn't underestimate Tris (which let's be real, probably saved his life). She plopped down on the chair across from Christina, smiling viscously. "I like him."

Christina sighed. "Me too."

"If he ever gives you problems, tell me. I'll beat him up for you."

She snorted, leaning her elbows on the table. "You're fiery, we're going to be good friends."

"Hey losers, got your drinks for you." Shauna intervened, plopping their drinks down in a rushed manner.

"Thanks, loser," Tris replied, the word easily slipped out of her mouth as Shauna sat down next to her. "How do you feel about Will?"

"Cute, not my type, though, shy. You?"

"Too tall, like every damn person in this state. Got this cute puppy dog thing going on, probably a freak in the bed. How do you feel about Christina and Will?" Tris directed her attention towards Christina, who was staring at them like they were insane. They both smirked and sipped on their drinks, raising their eyebrows and making "suggestive" looks.

"He would definitely be more confident, and she's a freak in bed so I think they will balance each other out quite well. What do you think Chrissy?"

Christina rolled her eyes, resting her chin on her hands. "I think you guys are the freaks."

Tris tsked at her. "That's not very nice."

She just sighed, dropping her head down onto the wooden table.

"Well, I think that they would be very cute together. And I know this because Will has not stopped glancing at you since you sat down, and Zeke has told me he's a truthful drunk so I've heard some pretty good conversations."

"And if he didn't like you, why would he ask you out?" Tris mentioned.

"I suppose you're right." Christina agreed, sipping her coffee. "You're still freaks, though, both of you."

Shauna flipped her hair over her shoulder. "You know it. Now, when should we schedule a hair appointment for Tris to fix her hair?"

"Hey!" Tris argued, indignantly. "There is nothing wrong with my hair."

"It's better blonde."

"Definitely blonde," Christina added in. "I know a girl who can do amazing shit to you, cheap too. Her name's Lynn, she's hella cool."

"I don't get a say in this?"

Shauna and Christina glanced towards each other. "Nope." They said in unison, then went back to sipping their drinks.

"You guys suck."

"I would say you love me, but we met like six hours ago. But you will love me." Christina said, confidently.

Shauna snorted, grabbing a napkin and wiping whipped cream off her nose. "And you've already seen my boobs, so you're bound to love me too."

"And I met you like five minutes ago, but you're gonna love me as well." Will interrupted, sliding into the seat next to Christina.

Christina was mid sip when he started talking, resulting in a major cough fit. She reached for napkins as Will patted her back soothingly. "Thanks," She coughed out, her voice was hoarse and she wiped her mouth of any spills of coffee. She timidly reached for her drink again, taking another sip.

"Are you okay? Do you need a cup of water or a cough drop? Do you nee-" Will asked, eyes wide with concern.

Tris snorted, starting to stand up and gather her bags. "She choked, she wasn't shot."

Shauna did the same. "He should get used to her choking on things," She muttered under her breath.

Tris snickered and gathered the remaining of her stuff. "Ready?" She asked Christina and Will.

She nodded, half her bags piled along Will's arms.

"Never offered to carry my bags," Shauna muttered under her breath as she walked out of the building.

Will snorted, "Shut up."

"Zeke knows how to shut her up," Tris muttered.

Will laughed and nudged at Shauna's shoulder.

"Tris! I thought you were on my side."

"Never said I wasn't. But you should probably get used to it if you're gonna be hanging around our dorm."

"Oh, I like you. So you're Zeke's new roommate?" Will asked, sneaking glances at Chris as they walked.

"Yup, I was in the room for a total of three seconds and Zeke and Shauna were in a very compromising position."

"Loser." Shauna retorted, punching Tris lightly in the arm.

"Wow that was almost too good, I don't know how I'm ever going to recover from that epic comeback."

She just scoffed.

Will chuckled under his breath and started swinging the bags as he walked. "So where you from, Tris?"

"Clarion."

"Where's that?" Christina chimed in.

"It's in Iowa."

"Farmer girl huh?"

"It's a small town, you've probably never heard of it. But it's pretty great because everyone knows everyone"

"Great, now I can go visit and find out all your dirty secrets," Shauna smiled mischievously and raised her eyebrows.

"Good luck with that nerd." Tris scoffed, glancing back at Christina and Will who seemed to forget about Shauna and Tris's presence. "Hey, wanna ditch them?"

She raised her eyebrows then grabbed Tris's wrist, pulling her into a random store.

"They won't even notice," She smirked and hid behind a clothing rack as the two other nerds walked past the store. "Dummies."

"You're hiding behind men's boxers, dummy." Tris retorted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Jeez, can't have a moment can I?"

Tris grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the heavily perfumed store. She glanced up at the "Nordstrom" sign and made a mental note not to go there unless she wanted to lose her sense to smell. "Nope."

"You're cool, ya know?"

"Glad you noticed."

Shauna rolled her eyes but smiled. "So what's your problem with boys?"

"I don't have a problem with them, I'm just not into dating right now."

"Bad breakup? Bad boyfriend?"

"Never had a boyfriend so the whole breakup thing doesn't work out."

"I am utterly shocked to my core." Tris didn't think she looked utterly shocked. "You've never had a boyfriend? You're a junior!"

"Thank you, I was unaware," The sarcasm was real. "But no, I've never had a boyfriend."

"Have you sworn off boys or something?"

Tris shook her head. "No, no, nothing like that. I guess they aren't interested in me."

"Lies, all lies. I think you're fricken pretty and cool and I've known you for like six hours." She grabbed Tris's face in her hands, squishing her cheeks together. "You have really bold eyes, which is good 'cus it makes your jawline look hella sharp. And you have nice cheekbones," She lightly smacked Tris's cheek then dropped her hands. "Boys are most certainly interested in your face."

Tris didn't really know how to respond so she opted for a "Pshhhhhh." and a small blush.

"You've gotta be more confident," Shauna muttered, but seemed to drop it.

The courtyard was emptied out, only a few people loitering the campus. It was nearly seven and the sun was setting in the horizon, making the sky a pretty lilac color as stars started to shine through the clouds. Shauna turned to her, ending the surprisingly easy silence that had wafted over them. "Is it cool if I hang around your dorm? Uriah, Zeke's little brother, is my dorm mate so I will probably be spending a lot of nights at your place.

Tris nodded. "It's cool. I know Uriah, he's very loud."

"They both are."

"How are they in the same grade, though, are they twins?"

She shook her head. "No, not twins. Their dad died right before Zeke was about to enter Kindergarten, he got too far behind in school so they gave him the rest of the year off to mourn and reentered Kindergarten when Uriah entered."

"Oh wow," Tris said quietly.

"It happened a long time ago and Zeke's very open about it so don't freak out too much."

Tris chuckled nervously, not liking the tension that seemed to mist over us. "I had to take a year off too." She cleared her throat uncomfortably. Tris usually didn't disclose that information this early in a friendship, or any friendship for that matter.

"Really? Why?"

"Something happened at the beginning of school last year, so I had to take time off."

"Was it because of the move?"

Tris turned towards her as they ascended the stairs. "What?"

"The move over here?"

"Oh, um, no. My family is still in Clarion, it's just me here."

"That sucks."

Tris shrugged. "Eh, it's okay."

They arrived at the dorm and Shauna struggled through her bags for the key, fumbling to unlock the door with the amount of bags she had.

Tris just snickered, not even surprised that Shauna had a key. "Yo Zeke! Open the door!" She shouted. The faint sound of footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door as Zeke padded over followed by a small crash before the door opened in front of them.

"Wassup, Tris!" He smiled widely, grabbing some of her bags as she walks past him.

"Thanks." Tris picked up a stray plastic cup that must've been the culprit of the crash (she hoped).

"Not a problem," He turned towards Shauna, also taking a couple of her bags.

"Wassup babe?"

She groaned. "Move, the couch is literally five feet away and my shoes are killing me."

Zeke just laughed, dropping the bags at his feet and lifting Shauna into his arms. "Better?"

She sighed. "Much."

"Aren't you guys just the sweetest little things?" Tris cooed at them, mockingly.

Zeke replied by giving Shauna a big slobbery kiss on her cheek as she flipped Tris off. Tris just laughed and dropped the rest of my bags off in her room.

"You guys hungry?" She padded to the kitchen and opened up the stainless steel fridge only to find a small lemon, a single packet of ketchup and a half eaten apple.

"Zeke? Really?"

He shrugged. "I thought you guys were going to get food."

"It's all good," Shauna started, throwing her shoes to the other side of the room. "I'll just order some pizza, is half cheese half meat lovers good? The take out menus is in the drawer, Tris."

Tris grabbed the first one she saw and dialed the number, pressing the phone into her ear as she flipped through the menu.

"Hey, Uriah's pizza and abortion clinic, your loss is our sauce! What's up Shaunny?"

Tris snorted, from what she heard about Uriah, this was normal for him. "Shaunny's a bit preoccupied right now, it's Tris."

"Coolio. What's up Tris, what can I get ya?"

"Ummm," She glanced at the menu. "Just an order of breadsticks and a large meat lovers and cheese."

"Coolio, coolio. Anything else?"

"Nah."

"Coolio. I'll be there in 20 minutes Trissy, tell Shaunny that I will be bringing Marley and probably Daddy #2."

Tris made a face but decided that it was better to ask Shauna than Uriah.

"Okay...well, I'll see you later."

"Toodles, Trissy."

"Yeah, we're gonna talk about that lil nickname."

Uriah laughed and hung up, leaving Tris in silence.

"Yo, Shauna?"

"What's up bitch!" Shauna yelled, pulling on a new shirt and walking into her view.

"Uriah says he's bringing Marley and Daddy #2? Who's #1?"

She laughed and brushed her hair up into a messy bun. "Daddy #1 is Willy boy

and Daddy #2 is Four."

"He's Daddy #4?"

She laughed again. "It's better when you meet him."

Tris shrugged again. "Okay... Well, the pizza will be here in 20 minutes so I'm gonna get a quick workout done."

"Really? Let me pick out your clothes!"

Tris was about to object but Shauna had already bolted into her room. "Yeah, sure I guess."

* * *

The wrap was too tight around Tris's fingers. It rubbed her knuckles against each other in all the wrong ways while continuously cutting off the circulation to her fingertips. But Tris was too busy to fix it.

She flipped her body around and landed a high kick to the upper part of the punching bag then smacked the front with her knuckles against it, which bended my wrist awkwardly. Stepping back, she shook her hand out and got back into position. She tried to punch it again but ended up with the same awkward wrist bend.

"You should keep tension in your abdomen,"

Tris flipped her head around to find a tall boy leaning against the ropes of the boxing ring, staring intently at her. Tris put her arms on her hips and glared. She was not used to strange boys watching her, even though he was a little bit cute.

He just raised his eyebrows, almost amused at the thought that this little 5 foot 2 girl could possibly be scary. "Your arms are too low, that's why you ended up hitting it with your wrist." He jumped into the ring, standing next to her and getting into a fighting stance.

He seemed to know what he was doing so she mimicked it as he walked around to her left side. "Now just look here," He pointed at the middle of the bag. "And punch."

Tris brought her fist against it and the bag moved from the force. She glanced back to find that he was smiling. "Good, do it again."

She continued to punch the bag, moving it more and more after each punch. Tris lifted her leg up and kicked the side of the bag then bent low and punched the other side. When she thought it was good enough, she stepped back and the boy came back into her view. Huh. She almost forgot about him.

"Better, but your still not keeping some tension here." He stepped behind her and wrapped his hand around her waist. She stiffened immediately as the pads of his finger spread across the skin where her shirt had ridden up. Without thinking she grabbed his hand and flipped him around, wrenching his arm up the small of his back.

She blew out a shaky breath. "Touch me again and you lose an arm," Tris whispered, threateningly. He groaned in pain and she pushed him out of her grip as he shook his arm out.

"Bitch!"

She suddenly recognized that voice, it was the same voice that spewed profanities earlier this morning. She spotted a blue beanie in his back pocket.

"No," Tris muttered, ripping it out of his pocket. "You're that asshole that ran into me this morning!" She threw the beanie at his face, frustrated that he caught it with ease.

A look of recognition washed over him but as quick as it came it was replaced by anger. "No fucking way, you ran into me!" He shoved the beanie into his pocket and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at her with intent.

"I'm surprised you could see anything besides your stupid phone!" Tris retorted and glanced around at her exits.

He stepped towards her and she stepped back, a flash of fear resonating in her eyes before it was replaced with determination. "Well, I'll have you know that I was designing an app for the visually impaired like you!"

She snorted, quickly unwrapping and throwing her tapes into the trashcan then hopping out of the ring. "Well, you should be spending your time designing an app that helps retards like you find a way to get their heads out of their asses."

His stumbled over a comeback and Tris laughed. He was an asshole, a hot asshole but still an asshole. She grabbed her bag and glanced back to see his shocked face. "Bye bye bitch." Then the elevator doors shut. Tris leaned back against the walls, feeling the adrenaline of standing up to him flow through her veins.

She ended up running through the frigid rain to get to her dorm building which made the replaced the adrenaline with ice cold blood. The lobby was surprisingly quiet, except for the creepy (most likely drug dealers) dudes that were sulking around. Luckily, the inside was heated and toasty so most of the rain dried off by the time she got to her dorm. In there, Tris found an unsightly seen of Shauna on top of Zeke, tongues flying everywhere.

"Jesus Christ! Seriously? On the fricking counter?" She shouted, covering her eyes with her hands. They both laughed. "Oh wow guys, really funny. Innocent eyes over here!"

Shauna snorted. "You can look now. For the record, you said you would be gone 20 minutes."

Tris emptied out the contents of her sports bag onto the kitchen island. "Well, I ran into some asshole so I had to cut it short."

Shauna murmured and hopped up next to the pile, flinging a towel into the laundry basket. "Go early, assholes don't have enough energy to carry their egos down the stairs."

"True." Tris peeled off her half sweaty/rainy shirt and threw it in the general area of the laundry. "Imma take a shower, call me when the pizza is ready."

"Sure thang," She replied, snapping her bra strap as Tris walked passed her.

* * *

When Tris got out, she could tell that there was definitely more people in the dorm. She wrapped the towel around her warm figure and quickly changed into something more comfortable.

The smell of pizza wafted through the air and there was a soft patter of feet against the hardwood floors. Tris walked out into the living room to find everyone gathered around the area socializing and dancing to the pop music playing in the background. Tris moved her way through the bodies, acknowledging Marlene and Uriah when they saw her. But obviously, Tris's first priority was pizza (duh). She managed to grab a slice while trying to maintain a conversation with Zeke, who must've had at least four red bulls while she was in the shower.

"Hey, so um I think that you've met everyone here, well except Daddy #2, but I don't know where he is at the momento but anyway some stuffs you should know bout this annual Friday night slash weekend thing that we do, so basically we all just come over to one of the dorms, eat food and pig out and play games sometimes with alcohol, and I mean we have energy drinks if you wanna be sober or you're just not into that, like I mean Daddy #2 doesn't drink and he still gets really hyped after 7 Monsters which is understandable because I had like 3 of those things while you were in the shower and mannnnn I can see so clearly-"

"Dude, Monster is so bad for you." Tris managed to get in while he started to look into the distance as if he was reassessing his life choices. Which honestly anyone would after that much caffeine and artificial dye in their system. She decided to let it slide that he was speaking in sentence fragments and using horrible grammar or the fact that "annual" meant yearly not weekly. But she got the gist.

He just made a face like "Nah I'm sure it's fine, internal bleeding is where the blood is supposed to be". Tris just snorted, glancing around at her surroundings.

"Hmmmm. So when do we play the games?" She questioned, taking a bite of the pizza and nearly moaning in delight.

"Well if you're referring to like board games I have like a hella ton of those and I'm pretty frickin king at monopoly and sudoku, mannnnn sudoku, that fucks me up sometimes because everything is just supposed to fit together perfect and it's so great, but anyway, I'm great at Uno because I just keep all the cool cards till the end and I just bust them out like "what's up bitches!" and Marlene absolutely hates it-"

"Dude, really, I can't fricking talk to you like this," Tris cut him off and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler that was by the table. She threw it at his face which probably wasn't the best idea because it hit him in the chest and fell to the floor as he just stared at it. Man he was out of it. She picked it up and opened it for him, shoving it at his chest. "Chug it."

He stared for a minute but grabbed it from her and threw his head back. For some reason, he lost the function of having a working mouth and the water continued to dribble onto his shirt. He downed the rest and threw the bottle behind him, not glancing back to see if it hit anyone or anything.

Tris just rolled her eyes. "You good now bro?" She asked, putting her hand on his shoulder but pulling back when it came in contact with the dampness.

He coughed once and wiped his mouth. "Yeah, I feel so much better, damn. So what was the question?"

"When do we play the games?"

He looked around wistfully then glanced at his watch. "Well, usually it's when everyone has eaten something and everything just calms down which is usually around 10ish soo in maybe 15ish minutes?"

Tris just hummed.

"So what sports are you doing?" He reached over me and grabbed another pizza slice then began to much into it happily.

"Sports?"

Zeke snorted. "Yeah sports, you know the things that you do for extracurricular activities. Most of them include soccer, football, basketball, swimming-"

"I know what sports are, idiot."

He gasped, bringing his pizza slice to his heart. "That hurts Tris. That hurts right here."

She just scoffed and mutter "baby" under her breath. "But I'm thinking about cross country or maybe soccer, but I don't know a lot about it. Either way, I could just ditch both and do weights instead."

"You-you got some muscles there Trissy?" He started to grab at her bicep and she shoved him away. "Hmmm? A little 50 pounds? A little lifting? Bench pressing? Hmmmmmmm?" He started to flick her arms. "That's nice Tris. Better than Uriah."

Tris rolled her eyes and punched him in his bicep and he let out an exaggerated little squeal of pain.

"Jesus Tris." He brought his other hand up to cradle his arm and gave her what was probably his best sad puppy dog face. Which, personally, Tris thought wasn't even that good.

"For the record, yours are better than Uriahs too." He scoffed in disbelief. "Well this was fun, but I'm going to get something to drink." She quickly walked away from the conversation and into the kitchen.

Tris opened up the fridge again, happy to see that someone brought something other than Monster, water or alcohol and grabbed a fruit punch. She hopped onto the counter and flipped around to stare at the people in her living room. She spotted Uriah and Marlene by the stereo, fighting over who gets to choose the next song. Marlene ended up winning by kissing him and changing the song while he was distracted. Christina was smushed in-between Will and Zeke on the couch. And by the massive blushes they were sporting, Tris would guess that Zeke was giving Chris and Will hell for being in such close proximity.

They were extremely loud for just five people, but Tris smiled. She might actually not hate this place or the people in it. Any doubts that she had before had faded into the back of her mind and she was actually enjoying herself.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Shauna by the doorway. She was talking to someone and Tris only heard parts of their conversation, not wanting to eavesdrop. But then she did hear someone else.

"I didn't do anything and all of a sudden she flips out at me." And Tris knew that voice way too well as her fists clenched. How dare he. She quickly hopped off the counter and marched right over to Shauna. Surprise surprise, it's the douchebag dude that's been the only damper on her day.

"Are you fucking stalking me!" Tris shouted at him, her fists are clenched so tight that she can feel her nails press crescents into her palms. But she didn't care, because this asshole walked into her dorm and immediately started bad mouthing her to Shauna.

He stared at Tris for a moment, shocked at the sight of seeing her three times in one day. Because of course she would crash their friend's tradition. "You invited her?" He asked Shauna, who just stared at them.

"Um, excuse me. I fucking live here." Tris snapped then turned to Shauna with the same expression. "You invited him?"

Shauna chuckled nervously and scratched the back of her neck. "I see you've met Four…. aka Daddy #2."

It sounded a lot more like a question than a statement. Tris turned to "Four" (which is a really weird name) and crossed her arms over her tank top clad chest then gave him once over (just eyeing her competition, not checking him out at all).

He was wearing beat up black converse and black jeans and a dark gray t-shirt under a blue hoodie. And he was wearing that damn beanie that she just wanted to rip off because really, it's not cold nor is he outside and it's just all-around necessary. His arms were tightly crossed over his chest in a demeanor similar to hers as her eyes glared into his deep blue ones. There was a black mark that peeked out under his hoodie and Tris would be lying if she wasn't a little bit intrigued. But she held her ground.

"Yeah I have." The air around them thickened and Tris realized that the rest of their friends had stopped their conversations to stare at them.

He laughed haughtily. "I didn't do anything to you."

"You put your hands all over me."

"I was helping you."

"I didn't ask for your help."

"Well, you certainly needed it."

She shoved him. _Hard_. His arms fell to his sides to steady himself against the wall. He glared at her some more before turning to Shauna and giving her a face that says "who the fuck it this?".

Shauna chuckled nervously and fiddled with her hands. "So I see you've met Tris?" She offered and the "Four" dude rolled his eyes.

Tris rolled her eyes and stormed out of the dorm, slamming her shoulder into his as she shoved past him.

She wasn't really sure what to do now that she was away from them. Tris leaned her body against the closed door and pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. She obviously didn't think this through, locked out of her dorm and stuck in the empty hallway. She could hear everyone talking about her so she pushed off the wall and started to pace the hall.

Tris could admit that she had a little bit of fault for flipping out at him, but in her defense, he did put his hands on her within the first ten minutes of meeting her. And he could be a psychopath for all she knew, the chances were slim but still.

To her right, she heard a squeak and she flipped on her heels to face it, only to be met with the hard edge of a door right to her forehead. She stumbled backward as a hand wrapped around her arm, pulling her into someones chest as another arm wrapped around her midsection.

"Oh my god, are you okay?"

She blinked hard at the guy that smacked her with a door and groaned when she touched the small bump. "I think so." He helped steady her as she gripped onto his black t-shirt. "Aren't door supposed to open the other way?"

"What?"

"Doors. The doors open inward not outward so that this doesn't happen."

The guy bit his lip and turned to stare at the door. "Huh. We will get that fixed. I'm really sorry, though." He lightly tilted her head back to inspect the damage. "Oh, that's gonna bruise. Hold on, I'll get you some peas."

Tris gripped the door as he disappeared inside the dorm, reappearing with a bag of frozen peas and gently pressed them to her forehead. "I usually don't smack pretty girls in the face with my door."

Despite herself, Tris smiled softly. "I usually don't let doors attack me. So I guess we're both off our game."

He let out a nervous chuckle. "I'm Al." His light brown hair fell in front of his face as he held out a hand.

Tris shook his hand lightly as a mist of silence fell over them. Luckily someone else stepped into the hallway, snapping both of them out of their trance. They turned towards the person in a sense of surprise.

"There you are Tris," Shauna said, marching over to them. "What'd you do to her?"

"Oh-um smacked her in the face with my door?" Al replied nervously.

Shauna grabbed Tris's chin and looked at the bump. "Damn girl. Let's get you some more ice." She started to pull Tris away from Al who just waved as he watched them disappear back into the dorm. He seemed nice, only even knowing him for 2 minutes.

Shauna dragged Tris into the nearest bathroom, which luckily didn't cross paths with Four. "We locked him in my room," Shauna answered even though Tris didn't ask. "We figured that he should calm down a little bit."

"Can't I just go to sleep?" Tris asked, pressing against the small bump forming on her forehead. It was different now that she could look in the mirror, there was a small cut and bump but not too much beside that.

"Ha. You both are gonna play nice because you both are our friends. So suck it up and just be civil."

Ugh. "Fine," Tris said, dropping the conversation.

Shauna gave her an ice pack then led Tris back into the living room. She sat down in one the cushioned arm chairs, swinging her legs over the side and letting her head rest against the arm.

The dude came out a moment later, pushing himself away from Christina, Will, Uriah, Marlene, and Zeke, who were trailing behind him with reassuring smiles.

Tris watched as he glanced down at her but then moved to the chair on the opposite side of the table. Everyone else bundled up on the couch, Uriah and Will being forced to sit down in front of it. Neither of them looked too upset about it, Marlene's legs were propped up against Uriah's shoulders, giving him an all access pass to trail his hands down her legs and tickle her feet. Will was more than happy to be even near Christina, who, on the other hand, was blushing profusely and muttering apologies under her breath.

"Never have I ever?" Uriah asked the unusually silent group. He didn't wait for an answer, standing up and grabbing vodka and a couple shot glasses. He hesitated and grabbed a couple bottles of Monster and Red Bull before setting the drinks in the middle of the table.

Tris stared at the wicked smile that had spread across his face, nervous at what it might mean. She glanced down at her hands which were fiddling with the drawstrings of her sweat pants then glanced up at Four from across the table, surprised to find him staring at her. Well, not really staring, it felt more like analyzing.

The scary thing is, he didn't look away. He held her gaze steadily from his lounged position on the chair, arms crossed with a brooding expression. Tris didn't back down and held his gaze just as strong, raising an eyebrow in a "you want to fuck with me" display. His jaw clenched and he dropped her gaze, turning back to Uriah. Tris turned back to Uriah as well, find him slack jawed, eyes darting back and forth between Four and her. The rest of the group had similar expressions and it got more uncomfortable by the second.

"I've never done it in a Ferris wheel!" Marlene blurted out, cracking under the silence.

"Oh come on!" Shauna shouted, pouring herself and Zeke some vodka. The took the shots and relaxed into their seat. "So who's next?"

Shauna smiled as the uneasiness faded away. "Never have I ever…" She glanced around the room. "Streaked across campus."

Both Uriah and Zeke groaned, clinking their drinks together.

The game went on and Tris tried to keep everything as vague as possible "Never have I ever been out of the US" "Never have I ever eaten bugs" "Never have I ever had a boyfriend". It was getting harder as she realized some people started to target her.

She glared at him from across the table as his turn came around. "Never have I ever been to Iowa." Her glare hardened as she took a shot of red bull. He was targeting her for sure. Four raised his eyebrow in a "your move" display, tapping his fingers against his empty shot glass.

Christina glanced around the room, trying to think of a good one. "Never have I ever… Had sex."

The room collectively groaned as they all filled their glasses. Tris was a little bit happy that Four was filling his cup too, even though she also had to drink she couldn't help feeling glad that he was taken down too.

"But wait, you've never had a boyfriend," Marlene stated, confused.

Tris laughed a little, somehow feeling both drowsy and hyper from the energy drinks. "You don't have to have a boyfriend to have sex."

Four coughed. "Slut."

Tris turned to him, eyes hardening on his "I don't care" expression. All eyes turned as hers settled on his, glaring a hole into the back of his brain. "Never have I ever been kissed," She stated calmly, keeping her expression hardened as he filled his glass with Monster along with everyone else.

"But wait," Marlene stated. She seemed to get more and more confused, trying to rack her slurred brain. "You've had sex."

Tris shrugged, pulling herself away from Four. "Well, the guy I was with didn't really care about that part of my body."

Everything was silent until Christina shot out of her seat, she had taken many shots of vodka and Tris was really surprised that she was this coherent. "Innuendos. Niceeeeee." She plopped back down, missing the couch completely and ended up being pulled onto Will's lap. She mumbled into his shirt and played with his hair as he picked her up and sat on the couch, her still in his lap.

"Guys, I think that it's enough for us. It's already midnight, why don't we just watch a movie or something?" Will asked, twirling a strand of dark hair around his finger.

Most of the group agreed (the ones that could form coherent sentences). Marlene popped up and grabbed a CD from the cabinet and displaying it for everyone to see. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (her personal favorite), they nodded and she grabbed the remote and played the movie.

Christina was the first to fall asleep, followed closely by Zeke who had migrated onto the couch, Shauna curled up next to him. Slowly, each of them fell asleep and by the time Hermione punched Draco, Tris found herself awake despite the sleepiness clouding the back of her mind. That's the funny thing about energy drinks. She glanced over at the only other person who had been chugging red bull. He was still awake but staring at the TV with a sleepy face. Tris had to admit that he looked much better with his mouth closed.

She eventually dozed off as the ending credits rolled through. The last thing she remembered was the TV turning off and being submerged in the darkness

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_review to save the life of a duck_


	2. The Way You Look Tonight

ayyyyy, it's 11:35 on monday so technically I'm meeting my deadline  
I know y'all are salty about me posting faster, but this chapter is almost 12K, last chapter was 14K. It's worth it.  
I will be posting on Mondays so make sure to check then.  
And follow me on tumblr, I post prompts and stuff and I have a HMIYA tag that you can check out, I post updates and sneak peeks and you can bother me to update faster.

* * *

Tris woke up to the sounds of food sizzling and the morning light shining through the open windows. She shifted in her curled up position on the chair, her neck sore from the cramped space. She blinked up at the white ceiling in confusion, nothing from the night before was coming back to her, but the pounding in her head made her wonder if she got hit by a semi truck.

"What's up sleepy head?" A voice said from the kitchen. Tris yawned and sat up, sending a worrying glance at the array of shot glasses on the table. She finally looked up at the person who spoke, seeing Christina setting out some plates.

"What time is it?" Tris was surprised by the roughness of her voice and dryness of her throat, she was glad to find a glass of water and an aspirin sitting on the table.

"It's eight, we have to be at the auditorium in 30 minutes for orientation."

Tris yawned again then looked around at the living room. The couch was occupied by Zeke and Shauna who were curled into each other, leaving 1/2 the couch empty. Marlene and Uriah were sleeping on the floor, snoring loudly. The rest of the chairs were unoccupied, Tris guessed that Will and Four had got up with Christina.

"You wanna get them up or should I?" Christina asked, nudging her head at the sleeping figures.

"You can," Tris said as she climbed out of the chair and stretched. Her body was warm and sticky from the hot Chicago sun that flitted through the curtains. "I'm going to go get ready."

"Okay, breakfast will be done in 10 minutes and Uriah has an endless stomach."

Tris hummed a response before slipping into her room. She went straight to the bathroom to brush her teeth. The aftertaste of the Monster was burning the back of her throat as she washed it down with her mint toothpaste. Her reflection looked back at her with messy hair and cloudy eyes, it wasn't anything new. Tris washed her face and padded over to her (newly stocked) closet. It was absolutely stuffed to the brim with flowy tops and flannels and dresses (Christina forced her to buy them). She grabbed whatever items first caught her eye, which happened to be a tight fitting leather jacket, a white t-shirt, and some dark gray ripped jeans. The smell of pancakes was only getting stronger so she quickly changed and strode into the kitchen.

"Cute," Christina said after giving her a once over. "I think a high ponytail would look nice."

Tris just shrugged and sat down in one of the stools next to the kitchen island. "So, where'd Will go?"

"He went back to his dorm to change, but he's coming back up in a couple minutes." Christina flipped a pancake in the air and smiled wide when she caught it, throwing a sassy smirk at Tris.

"So what do we do at orientation?"

Christina started to put food on the plates arranged in front of her and said, "We basically just meet our RAs and the principal, and we check out which classes we're in. And if you want some money, you can sign up for a work program. I just work at VS."

"What pays the best?" Tris asked, knowing that she was going to have to find some money if she was going to keep spending like she was. Money wasn't really a problem for her, with her family being successful in the scientific field and her aunt marrying a rich old guy, but she'd rather distance herself from her family and be able to hold her own.

"I know that safety and health jobs pay well, like an assistant in sports injuries or guidance counselor aid."

"I'll look into it,"

Christina nodded and set a plate of food in front of Tris and she nearly moaned in delight. "They all pay pretty well money so I wouldn't worry about it."

"Ca-can I eat?" Tris stuttered, her stomach was literally punching her from the inside out and Tris chided herself for not eating more pizza last night.

"Go for it," Christina said, grabbing a couple of pots and pans (which Tris didn't even knew they had) from the cabinet. "If you want to be spared, I would cover your ears,"

Tris looked up at her with a mouth full of food and a confused face before realizing what Christina was doing. She had half a second to cover her ears before Christina started banging the pots together and yelling "Get up you little monsters! It's feeding time!"

Marlene woke up immediately, nearly head-butting Uriah in the face as he slowly came to. She yawned and stretched her arms. "What'd you make this time Chrissy Pissy?"

"I hate it when you call me that. It's been 5 years."

"Old habits die hard," Marlene said with a shrug, padding over and taking a large bite out of Tris's pancake.

"Hey! You have food right there," Tris said, pushing a perfectly full plate of food towards her as she sat down. "I don't understand, how are both of you not hung over?"

Marlene laughed, "Oh honey, we've been doing this for a long time. We know how to hide it well." Christina nodded, serious.

"Hey guys," Uriah said, sleepily. He was still pretty out of it as he kissed Marlene's cheek and headed into Tris's room.

"Uh hey? What're you doing?" Tris asked, craning her head as he disappeared from her view.

"Going to the bathroom!"

"That's my room!"

"Is there a bathroom?"

Tris looked at Christina and Marlene. They just shrugged. "Well-yeah!"

"Then I'm using the bathroom!"

Tris didn't really know what to say, turning back to her bacon and taking a bite out of it. "Why in my bathroom though?" She muttered and stabbed a pancake.

Marlene laughed and sipped her orange juice. Tris was jealous at how good she looked after getting up only 5 minutes ago, her face was glowing and she looked wide awake and alert. It took Tris at least 2 cups of coffee to get to that state. She really wanted some coffee.

Christina must've sensed this as she glanced over and slyly slid over some in a mug with a pretty floral pattern. "You are my lord and savior," Tris said as she grabbed at the coffee and chugged it down. "Oh, my god what is this beauty?"

"Four made it," Christina said, sitting down next to them and drinking some of her own. "It's his secret recipe."

"You need a recipe to make coffee?"

"You need a recipe to make coffee this good."

"True dat." They clinked their cups together and Tris couldn't help but like how domestic everything was. It felt kinda good to fit in for once. She swiveled in her chair, almost falling off because she's a clumsy fuck but then settled herself as she leaned against the island. She stared out at the living room, which was still occupied by Shauna and Zeke.

"Why didn't the banging wake them up?" Tris asked.

Marlene turned on her chair (much more gracefully than Tris did) and squinted at the pair. "They can sleep through anything, hold on." She put down her glass and sneaked towards them. Tris sent Christina a worried glance, but she just smiled.

"Zeke crashed the car again!" Marlene shouted at them waving her hands around as she paced the length of the couch. She continued to scream profanities at them until Shauna rolled over and smacked the pancake out of her hand. Marlene scowled.

"I resent all of that." Zeke said, tiredly, but his eyes were still closed and he was still curled up against the cushion.

"Did you make food?" Shauna asked immediately, rubbing her eyes and sitting up.

Christina picked a plate up and Shauna jumped off of the couch and grabbed it from her, hopping onto the kitchen island and sitting crosslegged. Uriah came back from Tris's room, looking much more awake and put together as he kissed Marlene's cheek again then grabbed a plate of food. He was oddly quiet as he sat in the stool, taking slow bites out of his pancakes.

Tris sent Marlene a questioning look and Marlene just rolled her eyes. "Hey babe, want some coffee?"

Uriah nodded slowly and grabbed the cup from her hands, chugging it down in one go. They were all silent as he gave them a thumbs up then started to chow down with much more vigor.

"Better?" Tris asked with a sly eyebrow cock.

He nodded, "You gonna eat that?" He asked, gesturing towards her food but then grabbing the plate piling it on top of his.

"Yeah, sure I guess..." She glared at him while Marlene snickered.

"Well, I'm gonna go to my dorm and change," Marlene announced and stood up. She strode over to Uriah and pecked him lightly. "We've got 11 minutes until orientation starts so meet in the lobby in 10!" She shouted and darted out the door.

The rest of them scattered, Zeke and Shauna shoveling food down their throats then disappearing into the room, clothes being shucked off as they ran. Christina grabbed Tris by the wrist and sat her down on the floor as she started combing her hair up in a ponytail. She made quick work then slicked it back with a bottle of something really nice smelling and really sticky. The entire room seemed to move in super speed as people flew through it, the routine seemed to be set and Tris felt like it would take some time to adapt. The next thing she saw was Will opening up the door and starting to usher people out into the hall and Tris struggled to get her vans on before they all left her. Christina just laughed and bent down to tie her other shoe then grabbed her wrist as they tried to catch up with the rest of the group.

They all ran throughout the emptied out campus and made it to the auditorium with seconds to spare.

Marlene stood there smiling brightly, "9 minutes and 48 seconds, very impressed guys." She was wearing a dark blue polo shirt, similar to the one she wore when she met Tris, and white jeans with beat up converse. Tris was very surprised at how put together they all looked. Christina was wearing a pretty sundress and her short hair was pinned back and Shauna was wearing a white tank top that was tucked into a pretty red skirt with black high knee socks and expensive looking ankle boots. All the boys were wearing nice collared shirts with dark skinny jeans and vans or converse. Uriah was wearing a cute bow tie as well and Tris raised an eyebrow.

"It's irony," He said when he noticed her watching. "They make a big deal about wearing nice clothing when at the auditorium. So every year, at the last assembly, we all wear suit and ties and floor length gowns,"

Tris laughed and punched his shoulder lightly. "Don't you guys get in trouble?"

"It doesn't break dress code so the teachers don't really care."

Tris hummed in approval.

Marlene groaned and tapped her watch, "We've got 42 seconds before we're considered late and Four still isn't here yet."

"Does he always do this?" Tris asked, craning her head to stare at the watch. It was extremely fancy looking and Tris reached out to touch it, but her hand was slapped away. Rude.

Christina sighed, exasperated. "All the fucking time, he liv-"

"I'm here!" Four interrupted, running into the lobby and breathing heavily. "Sorry, someone got a car delivered so I couldn't park,"

He looked a little less put together, his white v neck was wrinkled and half tucked into his black jeans, his hand was gripping tightly to a black leather jacket that made Tris look down at hers.

"Explain later, let's go, guys!" Marlene whisper/shouted and shoved Christina towards the door. The teachers sent them suspicious looks and glanced down at their watches as the group settled in the back room. "12 seconds to spare," Marlene whispered as they settled into their seats.

As the clock turned 8:30, a lady in a dark blue pantsuit stepped up onto the stage, microphone in hand.

"Good morning, students." She said loud and clear. Her short blonde hair shone in the spotlight and it made Tris sort of miss hers. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm your principal, Jeanine Matthews, but you can call me Mrs. Matthews."

She strode across the stage with pride and confidence, glaring at the students who were talking. "Today, you will all be exploring the campus and the classes, and if you're interested then jobs. It will be like it usually is, first come first served. Class exploration starts and 9:00 sharp, you will spend 20 minutes in each class then a 10 minute passing period before the next one," Tris glanced around at the auditorium, blue banners from their state championships and awards hung from walls for everyone to see, like trophies being shown off. Tris shifted around in the cushioned red seat and craned her head to look at the sound booth, then to the ceiling where the spotlights sat on the catwalk. "Lunch will be served at 11:45 and you are welcome to leave campus as long as you check in with Tori. I hope to see you all again soon."

Tris turned back to see her stepping off the stage and passing the microphone off to a woman who looked like her exact opposite.

The crowd cheered as she stepped up to the stage and she smiled bright then winked at no one in particular. Her dark brown hair looked messy and unbrushed, pulled up into a ponytail. She was wearing a tight black tank top that's tucked into army green ripped skinny jeans with black combat boots. Her skin is a dark tan which contrasted the deep black tattoos that covered her arms and part's of her chest. Her bright brown eyes caught the lights as she started talking to the crowd, a smirk of a smile never leaving her face. Tris liked her.

"For those of you who don't know me, I'm Tori Wu the secretary slash head of recreational activities slash the person who tracks you down when you have too many marks." Everyone laughed lightly at Tori.

"What are marks?" Tris whispered to Christina, eyes still fixated on Tori.

"If you skip a class or are tardy or have a dress code then you get marks all depending on how bad, the more you have means either academic or social probation and you can't have more than 2 by the end of semester,"

"Ahh," Tris murmured.

"Some of you do know me from my gorgeous son back there, love you, baby." Tori blew a kiss in Tris's general direction and she looked around their area.

Uriah laughed obnoxiously and nudged Four, who was trying really hard to hide underneath his leather jacket. Uriah stood up and put his hands to his mouth to shout in Tori's direction. "He loves you too!"

Tori laughed lightly, "Thanks, Uri."

"I hate both of you." Four flushed and punched Uriah.

Uriah just laughed.

"But anyway, schedules are organized by last name, A to L on the left side of the auditorium and M to Z on the right. After you've gone through all your classes then you have to sign up for a sport for this season. Sign up is in my office and is open from today after lunch up until tomorrow morning, your sport for the Fall season will be posted by Tuesday lunch so I suggest you check it. If you fail to sign up for a sport then you will be put into knitting with Ms. Corderos." Tris snorted and tapped her fingers against the armrest "Happy hunting guys." Tori finished then dropped the mic on the stage before hopping off it.

The crowd scattered, searching for the schedule that fit the name. Tris traveled to the other side of the room, getting separated from Christina, Marlene, Will, and Four, and shoved in between Uriah and Zeke, who's last names were Pedrad. Uriah pushed himself to the front of the line and quickly grabbed _all_ of the schedules from the "P" pile.

"Here you go brother," He shoved a piece of paper into Zeke's greedy hands. "Ahhh, Prior huh? Nice," He winked and passed the paper to her. He then threw the remaining papers at the hoard of students who had started to complain and yell because he had stolen the entire pile.

Tris snorted. She glanced down at the neatly color coded paper and read off her classes.

"Hmmm," Uriah murmured and sat down in his seat. He rubbed his hands over his chin a couple times, a move similar to what Zeke was doing with his jaw. "So what'd you get Trissy?" Uriah snatched the paper out of her hands before she could even protest. "Very nice, very smort." And no, he did not mean "smart", he literally said "smort" then grinned up at Tris with a cheerful smile.

"Lemme see that," Zeke said moments later, leaning on the chairs to stare at the paper. "Wow, 4 APs? Have fun being sleep deprived."

"Trust me, I will." Tris took her paper back but didn't get to hold onto it for long as Christina popped over and snatched it out of her hands. "Oh god!" She exclaimed and turned to glare at Christina.

She just rolled her eyes and compared the schedules. "Chill, we've got English and AP psychology together… you've got Calculus with Shauna… and like three APs with Marlene." Christina said then returned her paper.

"Thank you," Tris replied, indignantly with an eye roll. The rest of the group made their way over to them, switching around schedules until everyone was filled in on who was where.

"Okay guys," Marlene's voice was loud and clear, hushing Uriah and Zeke immediately (a difficult task). "It's 8:42 which means we have 18 minutes until Exploration starts, it also means we have 18 minutes to mark our lockers. Four, you got the paints?"

He held up a bag that Tris didn't notice before, patting it with his hands before setting it down again.

"Sweet, okay. 18 minutes guys, let's go!" Marlene shouted then ran out of the auditorium, the rest of them hot on her heels. Tris laughed as the raced across the courtyard, it was definitely odd how they kept going, there was never a dull moment and Tris found herself in an odd state of bliss. Then a paint bottle was launched at her head. She caught it (luckily), then reached into the bag for some paint brushes as well as some other blue colors. The group split off into the deep sections of the lockers, Tris followed closely behind Zeke who was armed with many cans of metallic spray paint. They got to work right away, Zeke started to paint over his "BLURRY FACE" with excessive amounts of red paint as Tris shucked off her leather jacket and opened up a bottle of dark blue paint then squirted a little bit of it onto her bare forearm (she didn't have anywhere else to mix it okay?). Ideas came to her immediately as she grabbed a stray paint brush and mixed the blue with some green, then some white, spreading a swirl across the span of her gray locker. She continued with this pattern, adding layers over layers until the colors melded together into her rendition of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" across the, used to be, boring gray locker.

"Yo, Tris….." Zeke's voice died out as he started at her locker, or was it her paint covered arms and jeans? She didn't really care. "That's really cool."

Tris glanced over at his locker which was covered with lots of explosions and Panic! At the Disco lyrics. "Yours is really cool too," She replied, grabbing a silver spray can and writing "TRIS PRIOR" in large bold letters at the bottom of her locker. The smell of paint fumes wafted through the air as more and more students started to pile through the halls. "We better get going, Zeke."

"Yeah sure, I've got Chemistry first so I probs won't see you until the break, ya cool?"

"I'm good Zeke,"

"Sweet." He held out his fist and Tris bumped it to hers then he disappeared in the sea of people. Tris was suddenly more aware that she didn't know where her classes were nor did she know anyone else. Fiddling with her leather jacket, she awkwardly made her way to the stairs where there were fewer people. Tris wished she paid a lot more attention to Marlene the other day and cursed under her breath. She was lucky, though. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted someone vaguely similar and lunged for them, grabbing their arm. She breathed out a sigh of relief when it was actually someone she knew, not some random dude. That would be awkward.

"Al, oh thank god!" She said, smiling.

He (not so discreetly) looked her over with a bright smile. "Hey, Tris, what's up?"

"I'm so lost." She said firmly, gripping his arm. He just laughed and led them away from the sea of teenagers.

"What class are you going to?"

Tris scanned over her schedule before giving him a definite answer. "Calculus."

"Oh, that's the third floor, c'mon I'll show you," He said and grabbed her hand.

Tris was more distracted by the weight in her left hand to actually listen to what he was saying. She knew that she didn't want a boyfriend, anytime soon at least, but it was strangely odd to have Al's hand in hers (even though they weren't intertwined). But then again, she didn't really want friends either but look how that turned out. So maybe it would be a good idea to get a boyfriend, but she still wasn't sure if it would be Al.

His hand dropped from hers and she looked up at the doorway they were standing in. "Here, you can take my map."

"Oh, no, I couldn't do th-"

"It's fine," He said firmly, placing it in her hand. "I don't need it anyway."

"Thank you." She meant it too. He smiled softly before disappearing into the crowd. She strode into her calculus class, quickly spotting Shauna sitting in the back. "Hey, what's up?"

She just patted the desk next to her. "Kill me now, please."

"Why? What's wrong?" Tris asked, but took a seat next to her.

"Ugh, Peter's in this class."

Tris's eyes flitted around the classroom to find who Shauna was pointing to. A tall boy sat in the corner of the room, he was dressed nice and proper with his brown hair neatly brushed away from his face. If Tris didn't know any better, she would assume he was a nice, preppy boy. But judging from Shauna's tone, and the small fact that he was busy conversing with Four, who was wearing that damn blue beanie, made Tris think twice about judging him too soon.

"What's wrong with him?"

"He's a douchebag,"

"He doesn't look like a douchebag."

"Oh honey, don't let the sweater vest and the dress slacks fool you. He's a fucking prick who tries to act like the poster child, but on the inside, he manipulates people, blackmails girls into sleeping with him, and is "considered" the lead for "valedictorian" just because his mommy is the principle. Marlene works twice as hard and has twice as better grades, so in my terms. Douchebag."

Tris turned around to inspect him again, only to find him staring right back at her. His stare felt slimy as he gave her a once over, eyeing her paint covered arms and her hurtful glare before giving her a "charming" smile and a wink.

Douchebag.

"Don't fall for it, Tris," Shauna warned.

"I don't plan on it." Tris stated then turned her attention to the teacher who walked in.

* * *

Peter glanced at her a couple times within the 20 minutes, each glance feeling more creepy than the first. She constantly looked over at Shauna for help but she just rolled her eyes and shrugged. Finally, the bell rang and Tris hopped out of her seat, bouncing on her toes as Shauna gathered her stuff.

"Economics?

"Huh?" Tris snapped out her trance of staring at the wall.

"Do you have economics next?"

"Oh uh, no. I have AP psychology."

"That's the exact opposite of where I'm going, see you at the break?" Shauna pulled her in for a quick hugged then bounded down the hall.

Tris gave a slight nodded then pulled out "her" map. She started walking down the hallway, but didn't get far before someone behind her yelled: "Hey, where are you going, beautiful?"

She rolled her eyes. "To fuck your dad." She had as much eloquence as a bulldozer.

"Feisty," The boy said. Tris didn't bother to look back to see who it was, she didn't need to meet another douchebag. "My name's Peter." He said, grabbing onto her arm to an attempt to slow her strides. Never mind, same douchebag.

She snapped it out of his grip and turned to glare at him. "Thanks for the name, now I know what to put on your tombstone if you ever touch me again."

He raised his eyebrows, a sickly sweet smile spreading across his face as she stormed to her class.

Tris managed to slip into AP psychology without any more altercations. She took a seat behind Marlene, who was hunched over the desk, reading. "Hey,"

She glanced back with a small smile. "Hey, where'd you come from? You look distressed."

"Ugh, Calculus. I had a run in with this Peter dude."

Her face got sympathetic. "I'm so sorry. He's gonna be in most of your classes you know?"

Ugh. "Why?"

"Like it or not, he's advanced placement material. Just like you and me."

Tris shifted against the blue plastic of her seat. "Who else?"

"Will, Four are gonna be in most of them. Shauna, Christina and Uriah for a couple of them."

Tris could work with that. She nodded, solemnly as the remaining students trickled in and the teacher started talking.

* * *

**FOUR**

When the bell rang signaling break, Four was the first one out of the classroom. His stomach ached for something to eat besides that 1/2 of a banana he had this morning. He wasn't treated to pancakes like everyone else this morning because he had to drive back to his house for a change of clothes.

He took long strides down the hallway as more students trickled into the crowd. He often didn't worry about maneuvering his way, seeing he was a good 3 or 4 inches above most of the student population, he was hard to miss and students usually parted like the Red Sea. But his resting bitch face and cold glare also might've had something to do with it.

"Yo, Four!" Someone said from behind him.

Four turned to find Peter struggling his way through the crowd. He was a bit shorter than Four and had a preppy sunshine demeanor that helped him blend in. Four wouldn't necessarily say that Peter was the most enjoyable person in the world, but they were friends. Kinda.

"What do you want Peter?" He asked, crossing his leather clad arms over his chest.

"You know that new girl, Tris?"

Four nodded with caution. He wasn't really sure what to think of her, she felt a lot like a home crasher when she showed up out of the blue and inserted herself into the group. Then again, that's what Four did a couple years ago. But she intrigued him with her small frame, cocky smirk, and cold glare that could rival his.

"What about her?"

Peter smiled and Four knew this was going to be bad. "I was just wondering if you could maybe find out if she is a challenge or not."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

Peter sighed. "I tried talking to her today, but she completely shut me down. And she's tiny so she must have a tight pus-"

"Please stop."

"Fine. I'm just saying, find out if I have a chance or not."

Four mulled it over in his head for a second. Peter was a douchebag, there was no doubt about it, but Four wasn't going to do this just because Peter asked him to. "Why should I?"

"50 bucks." Peter said confidently, knowing that he got what he wanted.

Four sighed. "I will let you know tonight."

"Fantastic." Peter turned and disappeared into the crowd.

Four rolled his eyes. He knew Peter was just a harmless, horny, teenager, but his gut was sending him some big no no's about this situation. His phone buzzed in his back pocket and Four fished it out easily before reading the text.

**The True Soulmate: Yo Four we are meeting in lot B Trissy has not had deep dish pizza yet and we r all horrified plz check us all out with tú madre. Lots of love**

Four snorted. What was really horrifying was Zeke's lack of grammar. But he ignored it and sent a quick text to his mom before heading to lot B.

* * *

"What the holy hell is that?" Was the first thing out of Four's mouth when he found his friends.

"That," Christina started, staring at the shiny Mercedes Benz that they were all huddled around. "Is Tris's new car."

It sat next to Four's motorcycle and he vaguely remembers flipping it off for being in his usual spot. And for the fact that the large red bow on top of it was extravagant and stupid.

He glanced over at Tris, who was reading a letter, a small smile gracing her face. Of course, she would be the type to read the card before looking at the present.

"It's from my aunt." She said finally, dangling the keys from her index finger. "She sends her love." She added on sarcastically.

"Well, that love costs over 34 grand." Uriah retorted. "But pizza?"

A resounding "yes" rang through the group as they started to pile into the new car.

"Hey guys," Four interrupted. "Hate to break up this well thought out plan we have." Sparkling sarcasm was one of his many great characteristics. "But the car holds 5 people which leaves 3 of us stranded."

Marlene scoffed. "Easy, you and I take the motorcycle. Shauna sits up front then Zeke, Uriah, and Will, with Christina sitting on his lap, sit in the back."

Will's face flushed red but he said: "I'm down if you are."

Four just shrugged and brought his head into his helmet before straddling the bike. Marlene hopped on next to him, his extra helmet already put on as she gave him a thumbs up.

"Wait," Tris interrupted, staring at the keys in her palm. "I don't have a drivers license."

"Do you have a permit?" Christina asked.

"Well..yeah." Tris said with a sheepish smile.

"Then get in the damn car."

Tris looked sort of relieved that they didn't ask any questions and got into the car. But maybe it was just Four who noticed. He started up the engine and soon after the car next to him roared to life. It screeched forward and jerked as it stopped and Four chuckled knowing he was safe and sound on his motorcycle instead of cramped in a car with a "learning" driver.

He clutched the handle tightly as Marlene lightly wrapped her arms around his midsection. She had many sides to her, each one more random and bizarre than the rest. It was one of the many reasons that Uriah liked her, she kept him on his toes but was still sane and interesting. And Four knew she loved the freeness of riding a motorcycle and sped off immediately, listening to her giggle with glee as they hit the road, a shiny silver Mercedes Benz following behind.

* * *

They piled into their regular "hole in the wall" pizza place, taking their rightful booth in the left corner. Four shucked off his leather jacket and set it in the corner along with Tris's jacket and Christina's purse before sitting down in his usual seat. The usually empty seat across from him was now occupied by Tris, Four stared at her, Peter's words echoing in the back of his mind as he tried to figure her out. She kept trying to avert his gaze, joining the conversation about fried carnival foods that Uriah was extremely vocal in. But she snapped.

* * *

They piled into their regular "hole in the wall" pizza place, taking their rightful booth in the left corner. Four shucked off his leather jacket and set it in the corner along with Tris's jacket and Christina's purse before sitting down in his usual seat. The usually empty seat across from him was now occupied by Tris, Four stared at her, Peter's words echoing in the back of his mind as he tried to figure her out. She kept trying to avert his gaze, joining the conversation about fried carnival foods that Uriah was extremely vocal in. But she snapped.

"What do you want?" Her glare was harsh and she stared at him with such intensity that he thought he might catch on fire.

"So this guy you had sex with, relationship or no?" Tact wasn't apart of his vocabulary.

She frowned and the conversation about carnivals came to a halt, eliciting an indignant whine from Uriah. "Why do you care?"

"For a friend." Well, he wasn't lying.

"Your friend can shove off."

"So no relationship?"

She flipped him off and Four took that as a "yes". Christina caught his gaze and shook her head in a way that said: "Stop now while you're ahead."

Luckily, the waitress came over, stopping any more conversation about Tris and her boyfriend/sex buddy.

"Hey guys," Lynn said with a smile. Her hair was blue today.

"Cheese deep dish pizza!" Uriah shouted, slamming his hand on the table. Marlene shushed him.

Lynn laughed and scribbled it down onto her notepad. "Is that all?"

"Our normal drinks as well." Christina mentioned.

"And what drink for blondie over there?" Lynn asked, pointing her pen at Tris.

"Goddamn it!" Tris yelled, brushing her hands through her hair angrily.

Uriah's eyebrows furrowed as he glanced at the two girls. "Her hair is black." He spoke softly and slowly as if speaking to a kindergartener.

Lynn just rolled her eyes. "Not naturally." She said, chewing on the cap of her pen and slouching against the table.

"Can you come by and fix it after your shift. Please?" Christina begged.

"Yeah fine, not like I have three jobs or anything. But seriously, what do you want to drink?"

"Um. Water is fine."

Lynn rolled her eyes. "Sure thing." She walked off into the kitchen as Uriah went off on a tangent about "The Games" this year.

"Wait, what are "the games"?" Tris asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Uriah gasped. "You don't know what ClearWater Championships is?" He seethed, leaning over the table and looking around at everyone. "Why, Trissy, it's the best thing in the world-"

"Don't call me that."

"Okay, first of all, it is a battle of the classes. We all play games and competitions to kick the other classes asses, our goal this year is to kick the seniors asses. Particularly Peter because he's a douchebag."

"Sounds great. Peter's a senior?"

"Well," Christina started. "Yes. Technically, he skipped a grade. But I barely count "my mommy moved me up because I didn't like your grade" as skipping. He still takes the same classes as us. It pisses me off that juniors have to pay for seniors prom tickets."

Uriah smiled mischievously, in a way that Four knew too well. He started off on a tangent on prom, which he was especially proud of, seeing as he planned it every year. Usually, the student council is in charge of that, but he bugged and pestered Marlene until she listened to his ideas (because she was the hottie on the council, duh). Which eventually lead to him planning out an amazing prom where they hosted it at the pool with water balloon fights and formal dresses and suits and loud music and lots of bubbles (don't ask). So he ended up planning the prom every year (sleeping with the president of the student council helps too).

"I've never been to prom." Tris interrupted. Uriah made a horrified face as he leaned over to the table, probably to yell or scold her, luckily, Lynn arrived with the pizza setting it down in the center of the booth.

The table fell silent as all eyes turned to Tris, who just stared back like they were all weirdos (which, for the record, they all are).

"You gonna eat?" Shauna asked, cocking her head.

Tris rolled her eyes but leaned forward to grab a slice, muttering "dorks" under her breath with a teasing smile. She pulled the piece away and the cheesy surface snapped as she placed it onto her plate. Uriah whimpered but didn't reach out for it. Four was proud.

She bit into it and immediately closed her eyes in delight. "Ooh my god."

"Yay!" Christina said, clapping her hands together. Four remembered her and Zeke, dragging him to this table and not leaving until he had tried the pizza. Which was amazing, by the way.

They all grabbed at the food, completely devouring it within 5 minutes (thanks, Uriah). The conversation came easily as they finished up their food, working on their drinks. Christina announced that they had 45 minutes left in their break and that they should pack up. She gave him a look and tapped the middle of the table with a knowing smile. Four sighed and grabbed a twenty from his pocket and placed it underneath his empty glass. She smiled wider, sickly sweet.

He waved goodbye to Lynn and made his way outside.

"Hey dude," Uriah started with a sheepish smile. "Can I, uh?" He pointed at Four's motorcycle that Marlene was already perched on.

"Scratch it and you're dead." He dropped the keys into Uriah's waiting palm and watch him bound over to Marlene. He was so whipped.

"Unlucky for you Four, baby, you're middle seat." Zeke said, clapping Four on the back when he groaned.

"You're_ so_ weird."

"I'm also _so _sexually satisfied, something that you're not."

"Screw you."

"Shauna's already doing that."

Zeke cackled as Four remained silent, slipping into the gray car along with Shauna.

Four was about to crawl into the car as well, but Tris stopped him. "Hey, um. I think we switched jackets?" She said softly, his leather jacket hanging from her small frame. He gulped as his eyes ran over her, then handed her jacket back. She gave him a small smile and sat down in the driver's seat, slamming the door closed. Four nodded slightly to no one in particular and pulled his arms through the leather, ignoring the fact that it smelled like mint toothpaste and vanilla.

* * *

"So… what is on my head right now?"

Lynn put her orange stained finger tips to Tris's mouth. "Shhhhh,"

Tris frowned then cautiously ran her tongue over her bottom lip. "Is-is that citrus?"

Lynn sighed and rubbed her hands through Tris's slowly browning hair. "It's vitamin C, it helps lighten hair, but I will add a little bit of bleach later."

Tris scrunched her nose. "Bleach?"

"You think I'm gonna put some orange juice in your hair and hope for the best? Chill. We still have 35 minutes until classes."

"Fine." Tris rolled her eyes and leaned back into the chair. Lynn had gotten off her shift and met Christina, Marlene, and Tris at the dorm. She found them trying to wrestle Tris into the shower. Apparently Tris had something against getting her hair dyed back. But Lynn didn't really care.

Tris dozed off after Lynn started to add the bleach. The smell seemed to waft through the dorm, making Tris's brain foggy and blurred. Lynn shook her awake moments later, leading her into the bathroom and pouring her hair underneath the faucet.

She looked down. A swirl of black stained water slipped down the drain. She stayed like that until Lynn pulled her away then dried her hair with a towel and placed Tris in front of a mirror, rubbing her hands together in anxiety.

"So? What'd you think?"

Her blonde hair was limp against her shoulders, the water droplets dripping onto her white shirt and black jeans.

"I, personally, love it." Christina said from the doorway. "What do you think, Shaunny?"

"I do too."

Tris rolled her eyes. "Weirdos. We finished yet?"

Lynn was busy attaching the blow dryer to the wall. "Almost. Sit."

Tris did as she was told and sat down on the closed toilet as Lynn started to blow the warm air into her face. She started to comb her fingers through the damp hair then used a hair brush to pull it away from her face.

Lynn stared at her intently, like styling her hair was life or death. In Christina's case, it might've been. But Tris was just happy to have someone care about her to the point where they would literally drown her in water and scream "You need to wash your hair for Lynn!" just so they could make her look pretty. Tris wasn't sure if it was psychotic or endearing. She hoped for the latter.

"Done." Lynn said abruptly and pulled her off her seat. And true to Christina's word, Lynn was a miracle worker. Her, not so black hair, was dried and styled in neat waves down her sides, reaching the top of her ribcage. Tris dragged her hand through her hair, the curl bouncing back in place as her fingers reached the end. She was really happy with how it looked, the blonde offset her grayish-blue eyes and it reflected nicely off her skin tone. Her black hair made her look sort of harsh, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She needed to be harsh. But now it made her look softer more approachable, and, obviously, Tris's first thought was how she could use this to look innocent in times where she was absolutely not (ex. throat punching anyone who tried to hit on her).

"Thank you." She said sincerely.

"It's no problem. I owed Christina. And I like it better, makes you look more…"

"Nice?" Christina substituted.

"Wow. Funny." Tris deadpanned.

"No, it looks good. You look really pretty and you're not just harsh black, you deserve to look pretty. Like a princess."

"If any dude calls me a princess I swear to god I will kill him."

"Okay, so no princess. You just look more…"

"Like yourself." Shauna said. Tris rolled her eyes.

"Precisely."

"Okay, whatever." Tris waved it off but looked back to the mirror. She did feel more like herself. "I guess so." She shook her head slightly and walked into her room. "How much time do we have Shaun?"

"10ish minutes. We should leave too."

"Okay, just let me change my shirt." She glanced down at her orange splotches that ran across her shirt and prayed that it would come out later. "Uh, do you guys mind?" She asked, gripping the hem.

"Nah, we're fine."

She groaned and pulled the ruined shirt over her head, throwing it at their faces.

"Oh! I win!" Christina shouted, throwing her arms out and batting the shirt to the side.

"What?"

"We made a bet," Shauna started with a huff. "I said sports bra, Christina said real."

"Oh." Tris said and glanced down at her lace green covered chest. "Huh. So you guys bet on my bras for fun?"

"What can I say, we have very boring lives."

"Speak for yourself, and wear the gray tank top with holes in it, it will show off my victory," Christina gloated and Shauna tackled her. Obviously the correct response.

Tris listened anyway, pulling the distressed, cutoff tank top over her head. "Up, up. Let's go!" Normally, Tris would've just let them battle it out on her bedroom floor, but she was pretty damn sure that Christina was 2 seconds away from biting Shauna.

"Back to class?" Christina asked, stilling laid on Tris's bedroom floor.

"Yup, now let's go." They stood up and brushed themselves off. "Everyone all accounted for? Not too many bruises and battle scars?"

Christina rolled her eyes while Shauna gave Tris a thumbs up. "Okay, then get out." Tris said and pointed to the door.

"Touchy," Christina muttered but Tris chose to ignore it, closing the door behind them.

* * *

Peter stared at her when they arrived at class. She tried to focus on her human geography teacher, but he kept pestering her, tapping her shoulders and whispering "yo blondie," at her. She ignored him until he actual tugged at her hair and said, "Yooooo Tris Prior".

She whipped her head around and gave him a cold glare, hoping it would send a 'what the fuck is your problem?' message. "What?" She hissed.

"Are you even surprised that I know your name?" It was obviously a huge accomplishment for him.

"Not really considering I spray painted it into my locker and I have blue paint all over my arms, any idiot can connect the dots, so congrats." She turned back around and he tugged at her hair again, but she kept her eyes straight forward.

"So is this real or not? I'm only into real blondes."

"It's fake." She deadpanned.

He chuckled under his breath. "I wish I believed you,"

"I don't care."

He didn't say anything after that and Tris counted it as a win. The bell ringed, signaling the end of class for the day and Tris picked up her bag and swung it over her shoulder.

"Yo!" Marlene yelled from her right after she had started making her way through the hall.

"Yo."

Marlene hooked her arm through Tris's and she stared down, oddly comfortable with it. "Have you signed up for sport?"

"Nah, not yet."

"Come with me?" Marlene asked with big eyes, even though she was already leading them into the offices.

Tris blinked, "Do I have a choice?"

"Nope." Marlene marched up the desk, where Tori sat and raised her eyebrows. "Cross country please!"

Tori rolled her eyes and slid over to her computer. "Nice to see you too Mar Bear, who's the blonde?"

"Oh, I'm Beatrice Prior,"

Marlene stared at her. "Beatrice?"

"Shut up."

"So what would you like for sports?" Tori asked, ignoring Marlene.

"What'd you have?"

"Swimming, basketball conditioning, cheerleading-"

Tris cut her off, not bothering to listen to the rest. "Swimming please,"

Tori nodded. "And what about jobs? We have guidance counselors aid, cheer manager, classroom aid, and lifeguarding."

Tris opened her mouth to say something but closed it. She didn't think about a job, her family was well funded and she had never worked a day in her life. But then again, she and her family weren't exactly on the best of terms. "Lifeguard." Tris said firmly, trying not to overthink it.

Tori looked up at her with surprised eyes and a small smile. "Good choice."

Tris tapped her fingers against the desk and looked over at Marlene, who was flipping through information booklets.

"If you're going to lifeguard then you understand that there is some safety information that you need to learn." Tori stated.

"Oh. I'm already certified?"

"Lifeguard?"

Tris nodded.

"Okay, well then just meet at the pool at 5:30 tonight," Tori stood up and held out her hand. Tris shook it firmly. "Nice to meet you, Tris."

* * *

Tris went to her room and slept for two hours after school ended. She didn't know why she was so tired, but when she woke up there was a 2 pieces of toast and a glass of water sitting on the desk. She smiled and threw her legs over the bed, stretching her arms over her head and sighing when her necked cracked.

"Hey, Christina? Shauna?" Tris shouted down the hall but heard no response. The clock next to her blinked in neon blue letters and she glanced over, shooting out the bed when she saw it read 5:15. She threw off her clothes and pulled up a swimsuit in a record time, thanking Shauna for making her pack her swim bag before she passed out for two hours.

She had just locked her door and started down the stairs when someone called her name from behind her.

"Yeah?" She responded as Al padded over to her. He was wearing running shoes and basketball shorts with his headphones draped over his shoulders. He was sweaty too and Tris tried not to scrunch up her nose. Instead, she bit into her toast and raised her eyebrows.

"Can I ask you something?"

"If you can walk and talk." She replied and started hopping down the stairs, two at a time.

He started following her, keeping a steady pace. "So where are you going to?"

"Lifeguard duty."

He looked at her funny. "So you'll be wearing a swim suit?"

"Yeah."

"Rad."

She scoffed but didn't say anything.

"So…you're not in any of my classes."

"Yeah. I'm mostly in APs."

"Harvard huh?"

"More like Yale."

He raised his eyebrows and smiled. "I'm not going to try and flit around this so, you want to go out with me?"

She stopped chewing on her toast but kept walking. It felt dry in her mouth and she swallowed. "Like a date?"

"Yeah."

"Look Al," Tris started, her eyes flitting back and forth at their surroundings, but it was eerily empty. "You seem like a great guy, but the truth is that it's my second day here and I don't want to rush into too much. I'm just not ready yet. Maybe later?"

He nodded and didn't look too upset. "I respect that. But uh, my ego is a little bruised so I'm gonna go." He waved goodbye and Tris allowed herself to laugh at his awkwardness.

She arrived a few minutes before 5:30 and shuffled over to the bleachers where there were about 4 or 5 other lifeguards sitting (she assumed because they all were wearing some variation of red with a cross on it). She felt out of place in her gray t-shirt and black shorts over her red water polo suit (it was her only red one piece, okay). She sat down at the end of the bench and pulled a book from her bag as she waited for the meeting to start. She flipped to the page that her highlighter was marking then pulled the cap off with her teeth.

She had gotten a couple sentences through when someone sat down next to her and she glanced up to find Four. He was wearing a black t-shirt and red board shorts and surprisingly, her easiness subsided. She focused her attention back to the book and blinked down at it, her leg starting to bounce and knock into his.

Tris continued to read on, highlighting the important parts in bright purple. His breath felt warm on her neck and that's when she realized that he was reading over her shoulder, not asking to slow down or explain anything, just lightly pressing his shoulder into hers and passing his eyes over the letters. She inwardly shrugged and flipped the page. Her glance passed over words that she had to go back and re-read, and re-read again. She ran the tip of her highlight along them and blinked.

Four, next to her, furrowed his eyebrows as he re-read the spot she ran over with purple. _I can hear the concern in their voices, but I don't hear any passion._ He glanced up at her passive face, hoping for some explanation, but she provided none, staring up at him blankless.

She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and closed the book, embarrassed for some reason. Luckily, Tori had run up to the bleachers, a blue swim bag hanging carelessly to her side. Four leaned away from Tris, focusing on Tori and the shakiness in her leg faded. She blinked at it like_ what the fuck is wrong with you? _The leg did not reply.

"Hey guys, if you don't know me then you obviously weren't paying attention when I signed you up for this. If you are not yet certified the next few weeks will be to get you certified." She said right away and sat down on the ground, back facing the pool, then pulled out a binder labeled "how to teach hormonal teenagers to give CPR" and Tris snorted. "Final lifeguard schedules will be up once everyone completes certification. Today is just for reviewing what we already know or to set up what you will learn." She shuffled around in her bag then looked up at them with a sheepish smile. "And, I forgot something so um, baby, please explain the rest."

Tori stood up and collected her things, marching to what Tris assumed to be the storage room. She was a bit confused who Tori was calling "baby", but her questions were answered when Four stood up slowly, a faint blush spreading across his face and Tris raised her eyebrows.

"So... I'm "baby" but you will call me Four. Call me baby and I swear I will gut you." A kid next to Tris laughed but it quickly faded when he realized that Four was serious. "So those of you not certified will be paired a certified person. Adam with Jamie, Miranda with Steph, and Amy with Tris."

She glanced back at a short redhead with amber eyes then turned back to Four. "There's been a mistake, I'm already certified."

He frowned. "Not according to your file."

"You looked at my file?" She asked with a firm voice and furrowed eyebrows.

He stumbled over a response but then closed his mouth and squared his jaw. "Go talk to Tori about it."

"Fine." She glared and grabbed her bag, swinging it over her shoulder and marching into the office.

When she got in, she found Tori leaning on a desk, feet tapping to some rap song blaring through the speakers of the computer.

"Hey Tris," she said once she realized she wasn't alone. Tori stood up, wiping her hands on her camo print jeans. "What can I do for you?"

"Apparently it's not noted that I'm already certified?"

Tori raised her eyebrows as a smile spread across her face. "Oh yes, I remember you mentioned that. Well just show me your certification and we'll be all set."

Tris nodded, pulling out her phone and going onto the red cross app. She quickly found her certificate and showed it to Tori, who nodded. "Fantastic, email that to me will you?" She hopped up onto the desk and patted the spot next to her. Tris climbed up, her slipper-clad feet hanging next to Tori's combat boots. Music blared loud from the computer next to them as Tori filled out a couple forms and passed them to Tris for her signature. It was silent for a moment and Tris traced the patterns on her palms, waiting for Tori to break the silence. "On your file, it said you missed a lot of school." It wasn't a question, just a solid statement.

Tris gulped and nodded with a straight face.

"I'm not gonna make you talk to me about it. I'm not even going to mention it. I'm just going to let you know that I'm here for you if you ever need anything."

Another nod, her fingers gripping at her shorts. She shook out ragged breaths and hopped off the desk. "I'm fine."

"Gotcha. So, because you're already all set up, I'm gonna have you do the first shift just to get a feel of how things are gonna be. That good?"

Tris nodded.

"Okay, so why don't you do some warmups—"

"Hey, Aunt Tortor!" Someone interrupted from the door. Tris turned to find Zeke's head peeked through, a stupid smile spread across his face.

"Hey, baby!" Tori stood up and pressed a kiss to his cheek, laughing when he tried to wipe off the red lipstick left behind. She then ruffled his hair and pinched his cheek. "You can actually do a little bit of practice with Zeke, that cool?" She asked, turning her attention back to Tris.

"Sounds awesome,"

Zeke pinched her side. "Race ya!"

"Oh ha ha," Tris said, but shoved her bag to the side and kicked her shoes off.

* * *

"Okay, so just a basic 50 from the blocks?" Amy asked with an amused smile.

"Sure, you're going down Prior." Zeke said, but it was hard for Tris to take him seriously when he was only wearing a speedo. And not just any speedo, this particular one had a nice image of a tiger printed over the crotch.

"I'd like to see you try Pedrad." She replied just as menacingly.

Amy moved out of the way and both Zeke and Tris stepped up to the blocks. "Okay, take your marks."

They both bent down and curled their fingers under the hard plastic.

"Go!"

Tris jumped off first, diving into the water and immediately breaking out into a sprint. She thanked her reflexes as she pulled out her first stroke, the cold water brushed passed her and she kicked harder. When she reached the wall for a flip turn she realized that she was still ahead of Zeke, but not by a lot. A couple months ago, she wouldn't have been able to beat a swimmer like him, but because of the thorough workout regime she put herself through, her skills had improved much more than she expected. Her hand slammed into the wall and she pulled her head up for a breath.

"24.7, Tris." Four called out from his spot perched on top of block 7, a yellow stopwatch in his hand. "And 25.3, Zeke."

"Oh! In your face Pedrad!" Tris shouted. "Are you not entertained?"

He laughed and rested his head on the wall. "I have brought shame on myself, my family, my country."

"It's actually better this way, because if you ever drown, I would not have saved you if you had beaten me."

"Well, I'm glad that I secured my spot in Tris's "will save if drowning" list."

Tris nodded. "It's very exclusive." She glanced up at Four. He was smiling softly, staring down at her and she pressed her lips into a small smile then pushed off the wall. She took steady strokes, slowly shaking herself out of her thoughts with every lap.

* * *

The sun beat down on her shoulders and she glared up the glass ceiling of the indoor pool. She could understand the purpose of having lots of windows, it could help warm up the pool and might even look pretty at night. But today, in the warm August sun, Tris hated them.

She sat up in the lifeguard tower, sipping on a bottle of water. The other students were all on the deeper end of the pool, learning about lifeguard stuff, so it was Tris's job to look after the little kids who were being taught how to swim. And lucky for her, Four happened to be the teacher. Which is exactly why she needed to keep taking sips of water, it was doing things to her, seeing him standing in the shallow end of the water with a 4-year-old boy on his hip (it didn't help that it was abs galore). And it made her heart hurt in ways she never thought possible.

Tris shivered slightly and pulled her eyes away. She tugged the (borrowed) lifeguard shirt down even though it fell way past her thighs and pulled her knees up to her chest. A soft song was playing though the speakers and she hummed along with it.

It was a bit boring, but she liked being alone with her thoughts. It gave her time to access her choices, like Al for example. She liked him, sure, but as a friend. And she didn't want to do something she regretted, so maybe she should take a chance on him. Or she could not, and be just as happy because she didn't waste her time on some guy she wasn't interested in.

She inwardly rolled her eyes and focused back on the kids, annoyed that she was spending her time worried about boys. There was this one girl who had strayed a bit too far from the group, just edging on the deep end and Tris narrowed her eyes. "Hey, watch out! Stay in the shallow side!" She tried to warn, but the girl panicked and started to flounder against the water. Tris cursed under her breath and pulled her shirt off, diving into the water and kicking towards the girl. Unluckily, Four had the same idea and ended up banging his forehead into her nose.

"What the hell?" Tris shouted at him.

He didn't reply and she rolled her eyes. Tris pulled harder strokes against the water and reached out to the girl, securing her on her hip then wading back to the shallow end.

"What the— What's wrong with you?" She exclaimed, clutching her nose in pain. It didn't help that she had to censor her words so not to corrupt any 5-year-olds. The girl clung to Tris, her face buried into Tris's wet hair.

"I was trying to save a kid." He replied calmly, taking the girl from her arms. "You okay Savanah?" The girl nodded and he sat her up on the wall to rest.

"Well, that's not your job." Tris seethed.

"Then you should pay attention, and do yours," He said with just as much menace. Tris glared when she saw he wasn't backing down. "I'm starting to think that you're just another bitch with all bark and no bite."

Tris let the smirk fade then smiled and stepped forward. "Good thing I don't give a fuck about what you think," She crossed her arms and looked up at his cocky smirk. She smiled wider when she noticed the smirk seeming more forced the closer she dared to get to his face. "And by the way," She added softly, eyebrows raising at his clenched jaw. "If you're good, I bite plenty." Tris shoved him back a bit and chuckled as he fumed in the opposite direction. For the moment, she seemed to have left him without words.

She rolled her eyes and pulled herself from the water. Her nose throbbed and she brought her hand up to touch it, realizing that it was wet with blood. She grabbed Amy's arm as she passed Tris, giving her a pleading look. "Hey, can you take over for a minute?"

"Oh my god what happened?" Amy asked, reaching towards her.

Tris shook her head and stepped back. "Four got in the way. Can you watch the kids or not?"

"Yes, absolutely."

Tris nodded slowly and walked into the office. Tori patched her up with the first aid kit, complaining the entire time about how Four was such a klutz which made Tris laugh so the whole ordeal wasn't completely horrible. The pain eventually subsided and the bleeding stopped, plus her nose wasn't broken so that was a good sign. But Tori refused to let her go back out and forced her to stay inside the office. So Tris spent the rest of the night seated on top of Tori's desk, picking out the music that played through the speakers (all clean songs, at least until the kids left) and helping Tori organize all the lifeguard paperwork.

The pool started to empty out at around 6:00 and Tori thanked Tris for her help, pulling her into a bone crushing hug. Tris smiled, flustered then gathered all her stuff together.

"Yo! Tris!" Someone called from behind her, just as she passed the boys locker rooms. She looked back to see Four, rolled her eyes, then kept walking.

"Tris!"

She groaned. "What? Do you want to try to break my nose again?" She was salty and it still hurt like hell, sue her.

"Well, actually the opposite."

She turned around and crossed her arms over the chest with a hard stare. His hair was wet, clinging to his forehead and he pushed it aside then scratched the back of his neck with a shy smile.

"I want to apologize."

She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side.

"I'm sorry for banging you in the face with my head."

"And?"

"I'm sorry for calling you a slut?"

"And?"

He furrowed his eyebrows and bounced on his toes."And… for calling you a bitch?"

She bit her cheek and looked him up and down. "I was looking for, "I'm a shitty person and you're literally the best", but I accept that too. I forgive you for banging my face up, but nothing else. You're gonna have to work a little harder for that."

He chuckled. "Fair enough."

"Is that all?" She asked, but started walking away, not bothering to look back to see if he was following. He _so_ was though.

"You're kinda of an open book you know?" He said, looking amused and sort of proud of himself.

Tris rolled her eyes and laughed. "Sure, you tell yourself that."

"You look better when you smile." He mentioned, and Tris furrowed her eyebrows slightly, noticing that she was, in fact, smiling.

She huffed and turned back to face him and said the one thing that only Tris Prior would say, "You look better when you shut the fuck up." Then turned back to the dorms and started to walk. He didn't follow her.

* * *

"So, what'd you find out?"

"You better shut up right now Peter, or so help me." He slammed his bag down onto his motorcycle and glared at him.

Peter put his arms up in a surrender, a cocky smirk plastered to his face. "I'm just trying to find out what you won't tell me. You know, what I asked you to do?"

"You mean bribed?"

"Pshhh. Potato, patato. Tell me."

Four sighed. "You really want to know?"

Peter, the nerve of that asshole, nodded with enthusiasm.

"She's fucking untouchable. She's mean and rude, and an overall bitch. She doesn't want a boyfriend, she doesn't want to have sex. She just wants to be a bitch and live her life."

"Untouchable huh?"

"Yes. Un fucking touchable."

"Even for you?"

Four looked up at him, incredulous. "Excuse me?"

"Even for you, the great Four, best fuck in the world and biggest playboy at ClearWater, and my best friend."

"I don't know what game you're playing here. I'm not the same person I was before."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Obviously. Because you started to hang out with those losers."

"I was friends with both of you until you became a dipshit."

Peter took a deep breath and stepped forward. "How bout we do this like old times? You get a girl in bed, then break her heart and she comes running to me. It's a win-win."

"No."

"500 bucks?"

Four didn't reply, clutching his fists tightly to his sides.

"What about 1000 bucks? I know you need it Four."

He clenched his jaw tightly and bit his tongue. The air around them felt warmer, constricting, and Four was on the edge of a breakdown.

"You're driving a hard bargain. 3000 dollars, Four. I'm willing to pay you 3 grand for you to break a girls heart, to nudge her in the right the direction."

Four let out a shaky breath. "You're out of your damn mind."

Peter just smiled, knowing he won. "Is that a yes?"

* * *

Peter's an asshole

Review if you agree

* * *

Also, Four kinda seems like an asshole. And he is, but he's an asshole with good intentions :)


	3. Get Your Head in the Game

Ayyyy it's monday. You know what that means :)

sorry this is so late, I've had tons of hw because school's almost over

I have finals in 2 weeks so I don't know if imma be able to update as quick as you would like, but i will try.

also, there is some swimming terminology so if you're confused there will be notes at the bottom explaining it

* * *

Tris woke up that Monday with the sun shining in, her first thought was, "who the fuck opened up my window?", her second thought was, "fuck school". She trudged out of her room, and into the kitchen area, immediately greeted with a "Good morning!" from Shauna. Her hair was tied up in a bun and a large t-shirt hung off her frame, the sleeves rolled up to her shoulders. She, apparently, woke up at the ungodly hour of 6:30, a full 1/2 hour before Tris she got up, and was busy flitting around the kitchen, putting away some dishes from the night before.

Tris leaned against the wall until Shauna looked up, frowning at her face. "What's wrong?" Tris asked, frowning at Shauna's face, then experimentally touched her nose, feeling the bruise formed under and flinching.

"Whoa don't do that," Shauna started then came over, putting slight pressure on her nose, before trailing to her forehead. "And your forehead? Hun." She said in a sympathetic way.

Tris grunted a reply then pushed off the wall and sat down on the stool. Shauna came around her side, sitting next to her, hands on her knees with a worried face.

"You want me to fix it?"

"Unless you know how to time travel, I don't think you can," Tris retorted, her voice rough and tired.

Shauna smiled and leaned in closer."You don't know what I'm capable of." She whispered ominously, hopped off the chair and skipped over to Zeke's room and Tris was suddenly very worried. She emerged moments later with a bag full of makeup.

"No," Tris said firmly, eyes wide with horror. "I haven't even washed my face yet."

Shauna huffed and pushed her lightly.

Tris gasped, and grabbed the edge of the counter to stop her from slipping off the chair. "You could have killed me," She said, with an even more horrified face.

"Stop being so dramatic, you would've bruised your ego a little bit, and maybe your ass." Shauna rolled her eyes and sat down in the chair next to her. "Get off your butt, wash your face, then let me fix your bruises."

Tris scowled and jumped off the stool with a sneer, before heading towards her room. "Don't you have your own dorm?" She said just loud enough for Shauna to hear.

Shauna just laughed, cleared some plates away then started to set out her makeup on the expanse of the counter. "I dorm with Uriah, but he's always with Marlene so it's not as fun as here."

Tris peeked her head out of the room, toothbrush in her mouth. "Who does Will, Marlene and Christina dorm with?"

"Christina is with Myra, Will is with Edward, and Marlene, well, she doesn't have a roommate."

"What? How'd she do that?" She asked incredulous, hand on hip, mouth full of toothpaste, and toothbrush in hand.

"She's the 5th floor RA so she has to keep a room open for anyone on her floor who needs a place to stay for the night, like if they're fighting with their roommate or something happens to their dorm."

"Sounds tough."

Shauna snorted. "Uriah certainly doesn't think so."

Tris shrugged and finished brushing her teeth and washing her face. She came out with her hair pulled into a sloppy ponytail and her sleep shirt sleeves rolled up to her elbows. "Okay," She started and sat down in front of Shauna. "Fix my face."

Shauna smiled wickedly, then started to apply concealer and foundation and powder, but honestly, Tris got kinda lost after she started "contouring". She didn't know a lot about it, but she'd seen enough Instagram videos to veto it.

"I thought you were fixing my bruised nose?" She whined as Shauna filled in her eyebrows.

"Stop complaining, this is a very natural look."

"What have you applied so far?"

"Primer, concealer, foundation, powder, eyebrow gel, mascara—"

"Dude….this is just too much."

Shauna gasped. "No it's not, this is standard makeup. I'm just attracting attention to your best features."

Tris rolled her eyes. "No more."

"Fine, just after I put this on your waterline."

"What the fuck is a waterline?" Tris asked with a horrified expression, she was horrified a lot lately. Shauna rolled her eyes and tilted Tris's head up, bringing the eyeliner closer to her eye and running in along the bottom.

"Okay," Shauna murmured when she finished, tilting her head from side to side. "Done."

"Am I allowed to move my face?"

"No." She deadpanned, but Tris rolled her eyes and rushed over the bathroom mirror, surprised to find that looked like herself. Just more….intense? It was weird, but Tris was more speechless than anything else.

"You like?" Shauna murmured, appearing at her side with a cocky smirk.

Tris pressed experimentally against her nose, the purple bruising was nowhere to be found, even though it hurt like a bitch, and Tris stepped back. "Huh. It worked."

"Well don't sound so surprised,"

"It looks good, but the foundation is a little heavy for me, maybe next time you could just use concealer or, I don't know, a tinted moisturizer?"

Shauna nodded. "Next time?" A cocky smile spread across her face.

Tris sent her a look and waltzed over to her room. "So, where's Zeke?" She asked, pulling a t-shirt out from her closet and pressing up against her torso.

"Sent him out for Starbucks."

"He's so whipped,"

"Perks of having a boyfriend."

Tris hummed a response and slipped on aover her purple sports bra.

"Speaking of which, we need to get you a boyfriend."

Tris snorted and wrapped a flannel around her waist. "I'm good,"

"Oh c'mon, you're hot and smart, why not?" Shauna stood at the doorway, arms crossed with a small frown.

Tris shrugged as she laced up her black high tops. "I don't really want one, I mean Al asked me out—"

"Hold up—Al asked you out? When?"

"Yeah, yesterday."

"What? Why didn't you tell anyone?" Shauna exclaimed, marching over and hitting Tris with a pillow.

"Ow," Tris deadpanned and started to brush out her curls. "It didn't seem to matter, or at least I thought it didn't."

"Obviously, it does, and you said no?"

"That's correct."

Shauna threw another pillow at her head. "Asshole."

"Oh, go get dressed," She retorted. Shauna huffed and pulled herself off the bed. "And don't tell Christina, she will murder me."

"I won't tell her, but you should."

And that was the end of that conversation, at least Tris hoped.

She and Shauna walked over to the cafeteria for something to eat, but Tris felt clammy and tight so she settled for a banana, telling Shauna she would meet her in calculus.

She took slow strides to the class, waving at some of the people she recognized though some of them didn't recognize her with new hair. She arrived at the empty classroom ten minutes before class started, there was only 2 or 3 other students and Tris took a seat in the middle of the room. She then pulled out a notebook and her textbook and started reading through the syllabus.

Shauna arrived minutes later, bagel in her mouth and Starbucks in her hand as she sat down next to her. "Found Zeke, he says he loves you," She held out a Starbucks cup to Tris, a smile spread across her expression.

Tris looked at it skeptically. "Venti lemon ale with one pump raspberry syrup, one pump of vanilla syrup, a half pump of peppermint syrup and thai walls?"

Shauna rolled her eyes but placed it on Tris's desk. "You're welcome."

She hummed a thank you in response, slowly taking a sip and smiling.

Class began moments later and it only took 15 minutes for Tris to decide that she hated calculus. It wasn't so much the actual learning material, but more of the learning environment. The bright fluorescent lights and plain white walls reminded her of a hospital and she shivered in her seat, curling her arms over her chest and rubbing them for warmth. Her stare bounced between the clock and the white board as they hit 30 minutes through the class. Shauna kept giving her worried looks and attempting to give her the jacket that was slung over her chair, but Tris gave her a steady smile and declined, saying that she was fine.

Shauna looked wary but seemed to drop it.

The next class she went to was much nicer, her AP psychology class was an array of teal painted walls and opened windows and soft lighting. She relaxed easily into her seat and was able to stay focused for the next hour.

Actually, calculus was the only white walled room, the rest were bright vibrant colors with easy going teachers and fresh air, so she decided right then that she hated calculus completely. Math was more of her brother's strong point anyway.

By the time lunch came around, she headed straight for the coffee line, food be damned she needed caffeine. She was going to skip lunch but instead decided to grab a sandwich, just in case she got hungry. The cafeteria wasn't that full, but Tris wandered out into the quad anyway. The grassy space was filled with students lounging around on the picnic tables or on blankets laid out on the lawn.

And eventually, she found her friends, all sitting in the middle of the quad on a princess blanket that if Tris had to guess, belonged to Zeke.

"Hey guys," She said, sitting in between Uriah and Shauna and plopping her heavy book bag down.

Shauna nudged her in hello as she munched on her salad. Everyone was already engaged in the thrilling topic of homework and Tris droned the noises out, instead focusing on the monstrosity that was wrapped around Uriah's shoulders.

"What the fuck is that?"

Uriah looked down at the scarf with a fond smile and readjusted it with pride. "It's a scarf."

Christina snorted from across the blanket. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," He started, exasperated. "I made it in home ec, and honestly, it's much nicer to me than the rest of you," He replied, indignantly and huffed when the end brushed the ground.

"Yeah. It's a scarf," Marlene replied and pinched his side.

Tris made a face and pulled out her sandwich, chewing it slowly then grabbing her calculus textbook from the depths of her bag. She started reviewing some of the formulas and concepts because she didn't really remember the majority of what went on in that class.

She didn't even notice that Zeke was calling her name until Uriah poked her side and she jolted back. "What the hell?"

Uriah shrugged and shoved a handful of Doritos into his mouth.

Zeke rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers at her, "What sport are you in?"

"Uh, I don't know?

"Trick question!" Zeke shouted, way too enthusiastically. "You're in swimming! With me!"

"Joy." Tris deadpanned and put her sandwich down. "How did you find out?"

"I just looked to see who else was in swimming with me, there were posted by the student center. Four is in it too."

"Great." Tris deadpanned again and rolled her eyes. "What about you guys?" She asked, surveying the group.

"Will and I are in swimming too," Shauna spoke up. "Chrissy is cheerleading, Marlene is in cross country and Uri has basketball conditioning."

Tris nodded, seriously. "So football is not a big sport here?"

Four snorted. "Football's kinda a joke at this school, plus Peter's kinda the captain so…" He drifted off and a resounding "ugh" rang across their group and Tris smiled a bit.

"Yo Mar? We have the class meeting today?" Will asked.

Marlene nodded slowly, mouth full of macaroni.

Shauna groaned and snapped the lid of her Tupperware back onto the salad with a sigh. "What're we doing?"

"Discussing The Games."

Uriah visibly perked up. "What? Did they finally decide on when we're having it?"

Marlene shushed him and started to pack up her stuff as well. "All will be announced."

Uriah groaned.

They all cleaned up their area after everyone finished eating and headed over to the library, where the junior class had their meetings. They all sat down around a circular table as the rest of their class started to file in.

Tris looked around the library, it was all high ceilings and mahogany staircases, light shining through the room in all directions and it was so fucking big. The smell of books wafted throughout the room and sent a calming allure over her as she relaxed into her seat.

"Hey, guys!" Marlene said from the middle of the stairway in front of them. The rest of the stairs led up to the second floor of the library, but Marlene and a couple other students stood in the center of it, standing tall and smiling. "For those of you who are new, we are your class representatives, and today we will be discussing The Games."

Uriah whooped from his seat as a couple of other students cheered loudly.

She sent him a pointed look and continued on. "Today we will be discussing the events, the schedule, and any other questions you have. Sound good?"

There was an affirmative response throughout the crowd.

"Alright, so the first thing we're doing is assigning events, so I have a spreadsheet on my computer listing all the events we have and you will all get into a line and decide what you want. Keep in mind that these are mainly suggestions so that we can see what you would be interested in, but some of the are finalized, like the lip sync or the obstacle course."

Marlene set the computer out on the table in front of her and typed something into it then stepped away from the computer and everyone surged, pushing out of their seats and almost sprinting towards the computer. Uriah, being the enthusiastic person he is, jumped into action and was the first there, typing immediately.

He gestured for them and they all crowded around the computer. Tris scanned over the list of events, eyes widening at the obscene amount, but the rest of them took no notice. Uriah furiously typed their names into underneath the "obstacle course" event, assigning Tris as the "manager". "Okay, so we need six for soccer?" Uriah said, glancing up.

Tris thought it over for a second and raised her hand along with Shauna, Will, Zeke, and Four. Uriah nodded and typed their names in then typed his and Marlene names in as well.

"Tris, I'm signing you up for swim and run, cool?"

Tris nodded, not sure what that was, but she was okay with swimming and running so it couldn't be that bad. Four frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, but didn't say anything. And she pretended she didn't notice.

"Four, Tris, Zeke and Marlene for the swimming relays and then you guys plus Will for water polo?"

It went on like that for a while until they were all signed up for the events they wanted, but Tris honestly wasn't sure what she was signed up for and what she wasn't, she just hoped that someone would give her a list of the million events that Uriah picked her for.

Once everybody was back in their seats, Marlene grabbed her computer and put in safely back into her bag. "Okay, we're just gonna go through a little time line of the rest of the quarter. So this Friday we have a "back to school" party, it's optional so if you don't want to go you can stay in your dorm and watch Netflix.

"We changed the venue from one of the dorm rooms to the Student Center, there will be pizza, drinks and music so stop by.

"Also, we have our homecoming next week the 21st, more information will come out next week."

Zeke cheered this time and sent a toothy grin at Shauna.

"And then the week after that, on the 26th is our Clear Water Championships opening night!" Marlene shouted and all around them students cheered. Tris allowed a smile to spread across her face as she cheered along with them. The laughter died down, but Marlene's smile was as bright as the sun.

"Okay so tonight, make sure to check your email because we will be voting for t-shirt colors and opening song, etcetera. That's all for today, just make sure you keep up to date and if you have any questions make sure to email me."

The library erupted in murmurs and whispers of The Games as Marlene stepped down, Uriah walked up to her, both their bags slung over his shoulder, and tucked her into his side, pressing a kiss to her temple with a whisper of encouragement. They were sickeningly cute.

"So what class do you have next?" Marlene asked, turning to Tris with never fading smile.

"Art," She nodded seriously and finished off the remaining coffee from lunch. "What about you?"

"AP Calculus."

Tris gave her a sympathetic look. "That was my A period, it sucked."

"Awesome," She said, not fazed one bit "walk with me." Marlene nudged her head at the door and pecked Uriah on the cheek, promising to see him later.

Tris gathered up her stuff then took long strides to catch up to Marlene. "What's up?" She asked when they were well away from the library.

"I want to do things to Uriah, wait, no that was bad, I want to do something with Uriah."

Tris was a little taken back and paused for a moment. "Well... I'm gonna guess you're talking about sex. So what's the issue?" She asked, stepping easily into the 'advice friend', normally she would hate this, but with Marlene, it didn't seem 1/2 bad.

"I'm also a virgin."

"Oh."

"And he's not."

"Does he know that you are?"

Marlene bit her lip and sighed. "No. All the guys think I'm not, the girls know."

"So wait, what's the big deal?"

Marlene huffed, exasperated and frustrated, eyebrows furrowed as she wrung her fingers together. "I mean I want my first time to be alright, obviously. But I don't know how to like… tell him that, or make it seem like a big deal because I don't want him to feel pressured."

It was Tris's turn to furrow her eyebrows. "Okay, my advice," She started, taking a deep breath. "Tell him. Just be straight forward and honest because boys can't read minds. And I know for a fact that he would do anything to make you happy and if you wanted to lose your virginity in a fancy hotel room with a billion roses he would do it in an instant."

Marlene smiled shyly, finally realizing that yeah, he would. "That's a good point, anything else?"

"Don't laugh. At anything."

Marlene rolled her eyes. "Obviously."

It was silent for a moment as they stopped at the art center. Tris looked up at the building, it was all exposed bricks, vaguely insulting graffiti, and paint splatters. She kinda loved it. "I do have a question, though." She stated, still staring.

Marlene hummed and turned to her with a questioning look.

"Why me? You could've asked Shauna or Christina."

Marlene shrugged, but Tris knew she had a reason so she waited. "Christina is a virgin as well so she couldn't really help, and I know that Shauna tells Zeke everything, and I want to talk to Uriah first."

Tris nodded. "Makes sense."

Marlene smiled and pulled her in for a hug, that Tris awkwardly reciprocated. "Okay, I'll see you later." Marlene said and squeezed Tris's shoulder as a goodbye. Tris nodded slightly, watching her head off in the opposite direction.

She turned back to the building, then slowly started making her way through the glass doors and into the open area. She waltzed across the halls, looking into the windows of the other classrooms and smiling at all the hung up drawings or the displayed pottery, until finally, she came to her classroom.

The room itself was big and open, but there was something about it that didn't seem all that great. There was a lack of light and the tables were smushed together uncomfortably and the room reeked of some type of paint fumes. But she sat down with a straight face, across from some guy she didn't know.

More students filed into the room as time passed, and slowly the seats next to her were filled. She sighed and pulled out her notebook, doodling idly as they waited for the teacher to start the lesson.

"Good afternoon class, welcome to intermediate 2-D art," he said, standing tall amongst them. "My name is Mr. Bertiz, but you can call me Mr. B.

"Today, we're going to just start out with what you can do. So just do random drawings to show me what you are currently capable of, not only will this help me determine your skills, it could also help me determine if you're in the right class." He gestured around at the classroom. "Take whatever you need. Impress me."

And that was that. The students stood up out of their stools and walked around the classroom, opening and closing cabinets, running water, laughing and giggling. But Tris stayed in her seat, pen in hand and notebook lying flat.

She hunched over the page, laying her on her arm as she continued to draw a blob. She wasn't sure what it was yet but she started to draw lines around the blob, adding subtle details until she saw that they were eyes. She frowned a little at a small mark that she made on the corner of the left eye, annoyed that she used a pen instead of a pencil, then she added more to it, turning it into a small scar.

"That's pretty good," Someone said from behind her. Mr. B hovered over her shoulder, staring at her paper with intent. "Shauna Jones?"

"What?"

"The eyes, Shauna Jones. She's in my pottery class."

Tris frowned again and stared at her paper, and yeah, they looked like Shauna's eyes. "Yeah," She said finally. "I guess so."

He nodded slowly, picking up a stray package of colored pencils and placing them in front of her. "Finish up with the eyes then after come show me."

Tris nodded and grabbed an array of green and brown shades. Her strokes were quick and fast, lightly brushing against the surface as she added highlight to the center of Shauna's emerald eyes. It was hard to remember the little details and Tris got frustrated, furrowing her brows and gripping the pencil with ferocity. But then she said screw it and finished it off, letting all the annoying details fall away.

Mr. B was sitting at his desk, reading glasses perched on his nose. "Here," She said softly, placing the ripped out sheet of paper on his desk. He turned his attention towards it, scrunching his eyes at it and pulling his lips into a straight line.

"I know that the eyebrows are a little off, but I can't really remember the way she shaped them." She explained when he didn't say anything, but he continued to stare at it, stoic. "And she has a little scar by here eye… just in case you were wondering." She continued lamely.

He looked up for a second, just to grab a pink slip from the side drawer, and started to scrawl onto it in messy handwriting. "I think you would be better off," He started and held out the small sheet. She racked through her mind, trying fruitlessly to fill in the blank. Beginners art? Sculpting? "In advanced 2-D art."

She gaped a little. She'd seen the advanced art back at home and she was pretty sure she was nowhere near that level, sure she had been practicing a lot over the break, but it couldn't have gotten that good within the span of three months. Her gaze darted between the pink slip and the ripped out note book paper before cautiously grabbing the pink paper.

"So, where do I go now?"

"Room 109, it's just around the corner." He said and pointed towards the door.

Tris smiled softly and walked out of the classroom. The other students stared at her as she passed, neon pink slip in her hand.

* * *

Room 109 was around the corner, just a tad farther than Mr. B let on. The art building itself was just on the edge of the school, away from all the other classes and sports centers. But room 109 was the farthest out, so far that it was actually separate from the other art classes. It was just a random classroom, sitting on the line of the school border, connected to the art building by a single stone path.

Tris sighed softly, pushing the doors open.

She was immediately engulfed in the light that seemed to shine in from all area. The windows were open, including the ones on the ceiling, sending a gentle breeze throughout the room. The ceilings were high, the walls were stacked with shelves and cabinets filled with supplies, the back wall had a couple of steel sinks bolted to it and above it hung a series of water color paintings. But what was really special, was the complete lack of tables, sure there were some, but the space in the middle of the room was covered with pillows and blankets and colorful tapestries.

Tris stood there, admiring the openness of the room, the blanket fort in the center, and the high metal beams attached to the ceiling. The room looked more like a storage warehouse than an art classroom.

"Hey Tris," Someone said from the corner of the room. She glanced up to see Tori, sitting at a desk with pencil clutched in her hand and a pair of glasses sitting on the crown of her head. "What can I do for you?"

"You're the art teacher?" Tris asked slowly as she made her way around the tables and metal stools.

"Who do you think did all these tattoos?" Tori replied and Tris glanced down at the black markings that littered the expanse of Tori's tan skin.

Tris nodded and passed over the pink slip. Tori flipped her glasses back to the bridge of her nose, squinting at the note. She nodded, once, before looking back up at Tris with a smile.

"Well, we actually don't have a lot of people in advanced 2-D, so we share the room and class period with advanced digital photography, do you have a problem with that?"

Tris shook her head.

"Okay," Tori continued. "Right now everyone's outside, wandering around campus, finding something to draw. So you can just walk around and draw a tree or something, your choice."

Tris nodded.

"All of our art stuff is over there," Tori said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the cabinets. "If you need pencils, paper, colored pencils water color, any of that crap."

"How far can I wander around campus?" Tris asked, already grabbing the new sketchbook out of her bag. Another present from her aunt.

"I mean, you can go as far as into the woods and stuff, but just be back 10 minutes before class ends. Cool?"

"Cool," Tris replied as she grabbed a pack of pencils from the top shelf of the cabinet.

Tori gave her a 'shoo' motion and walked back around to her desk.

Tris found herself wandering around the art building before thinking screw it and heading off into the woods. As she walked, the short shrubs soon transformed into immense trees, hanging up above her head and leaving little patches of light across her surroundings.

The ground turned to a long, wide, line of rocks and Tris tilted her head. It looked sort of like a lake or a stream, it was just empty. The rocks were bone dry and the shrubs around the stream dead and wilted. She frowned and hopped into the empty stream, kick up the round rocks as she made her way across them.

She settled underneath a large tree, light shining straight through the leaves and she looked up, admiring how the sun bounced off the leafs and decided she needed to go higher. So she placed her pencils and her notebook in-between her teeth, then hauled herself up the tree, finally reaching a suitable spot and flipping around, back pressed to the trunk as her legs hung off the branches. She hunched over and placed the notebook in between her legs and started sketching. Within minutes, her hands were smudged with pencil markings as she tried to draw the light falling on the small flower hanging off the branch to her right. The rest of the flowers had 5 petals, but this particular one had 6. It hung lower than the others, it was a light pink color, like the rest. but the 6th petal was spotted with bits of brown.

Tris frowned and drew it, exactly how it looked, but then leaned over a pinched the deformed petal off of the flower._ There, now you're not a freak._

"Hey!" Someone called from below, a couple moments later. "What are you doing?"

Tris leaned over, almost dangerously, to look down at the guy that spoke. He was cute. A nice t-shirt hanging over black skinny jeans and high tops that matched hers. "Drawing." She replied.

"Advanced?"

She paused for a minute. "Yeah?"

A smile spread across his face and he beckoned her down. She raised her eyebrows and kicked her notebook and pencils down the 15-foot drop before slowly maneuvering her way underneath the branches then jumping the rest of the way.

"Quick question?" She said once she fully reached the ground and picked up the stray pencils that had fallen out of their case. "Who are you?"

"Edward." He said firmly, holding his hand out for a shake. She took it with a firm grip and he gave her an easy laugh.

They walked slowly back towards the classroom as Tris hugged her notebook to her chest. "I'm Tris…by the way."

"Nice to meet you." He said and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I, uhh, I hope you don't mind that I took a photo of you."

Tris looked up at him with a confused expression, finally noticing the sleek black camera that hung from his neck. "Advanced photography?" She replied mimicking him and he shrugged. "It's fine."

"Well good. Because I hope I get the chance to take much more."

"Are you usually this forward with girls you've just met?"

"Just the pretty ones."

Tris laughed and shoved him lightly, almost causing him to crash into a tree. But he caught himself. "You're the girl with the pretty locker right?"

Tris nodded, happy that she was associated with that. "Yes, that's me."

"I can see why you're in advanced 2-D."

She smiled at that and ducked underneath a low hanging branch, enjoying the crunch of rocks and sticks beneath her feet. "So who are you again?"

He looked over with a confused smile. "Edward?"

"No like, age? Hobbies?"

"Uh, I'm a senior right now, my hobbies include…well, photography?" He said, holding up his camera for confirmation.

"I don't believe you," Tris replied, keeping her head glued to the art building that was creeping into her vision.

"That I'm a senior?"

"That you can do photography."

He snorted. "First of all, you can't "do" photography—"

"Don't care, I'm gonna need proof."

"Well. Uh, okay." He powered up his camera, leaning over so Tris could see a very nicely captured photo of her sitting up in the tree. It was very pretty, but something seemed a bit off. He continued to flip through his pictures nonchalantly until he came across a photograph of a girl sitting on a bed in a pleated skirt and high knee socks, a guys t-shirt slipping off her left shoulder as she concentrated on the book in front of her.

"Who's this?" Tris murmured, smiling.

"This? This is Myra, she's my best friend."

"She's very pretty." Tris teased, looking up at Edward.

He scoffed. "Understatement."

"So how long have you guys been dating?"

He tripped. But luckily caught himself on a low hanging branch before turning around with a bewildered expression.

"Oh, no, we're not dating," He replied quickly. "We're just friends."

Tris gave an unbelieving eyebrow raise and pushed past him, into the art room. They sat across from each other, making small talk as Tori walked around and looked at everyone's progress. Tris glanced around the room to see the familiar faces, one was too familiar though and she glared at it. Of fucking course Four was a photographer, it worked, the beanie, the flannels, the camera, perfect wannabe hipster.

"Yo M!" Edward called out, snapping Tris out of her glaring. A girl turned, smiling and coming over to sit next to Tris. "This is Myra, and this is Tris." He introduced.

"Nice to meet you," Myra said, smiling with flushed cheeks. She and Edward quickly engaged in conversation as Tris continued to draw, attempting to remember every last detail.

"Hey, Tris?" Myra started, and Tris looked up. "What sport are you in?"

"Oh, um, I'm in swimming." Myra and Edward exchanged a glance with satisfied looks. "What about you guys?"

"Cross country," They both said, fist bumping with nerdy smiles.

"But props for doing swimming, it's supposed to be real hard," Myra warned.

"I'm sure it's hell." Tris teased.

* * *

She should not have joked.

It was hell.

For one, the coach was scary as fuck. She was a full 5 feet of raging fury and 25-second intervals, pushing them to their limits on the first day of practice. But Tris liked her, a lot. The sass that she gave Zeke was worth the immense pain in her lungs and the burn in her legs.

"Does it say substitute breaststroke for butterfly?"

"No, but, I think, as a freestyler, it would be better if I could have the strength from—"

"Shut the hell up Pedrad." She said with finality and propped up the whiteboard that she had written the set on. "And do the damn butterfly."

Zeke sighed and snapped his goggles on, sticking his tongue out at Tris's snickers. "I hate this. I'm literally struggling to keep up with you."

"Work harder bud," Tris replied and pulled her goggles on as well.

"I mean that works, or—or we could ya know, erase the set and do whatever the hell we want."

"Or you both could shut the hell up and focus. Leaving on the top*." Four said with a firm glare. Which Tris happily retaliated to, even if she was just glaring at the back of his head. And that brings up reason number two why swimming was hell. Four fucking Eaton. The way Coach Steph arranged the lanes were by swimming speed, they weren't in the fastest lanes for sure, but they were pretty far up there, all of them cooped up in lane 2, next to lane 1 which held most of the faster seniors.

"Be nice, Four," Shauna said, smacking his head from over Tris and Zeke's shoulders, to which he sent her a "sad" face. "And you hush," She continued, directing her scolding to Zeke. "I'm in the back, so I'm constantly worried about Four lapping me."

"Babe, you're fine,1" Zeke replied and kissed her forehead. Tris roll her eyes. But there were some good parts about swimming too.

For one, she got to hang out with Zeke and Shauna. Two, they were all pretty fast, for sure the star juniors, and they damn knew it. Plus, their strengths all played out perfectly, Zeke was a freestyler, Shauna a backstroker, Four a breaststroker, and Tris, well she was a butterflier. And it fucking sucked. But, the glare that Four would give her after she would graze his feet on those certain sets is something that Tris would take smug joy in. And it just so happened that she was sitting in a pool with 30-40 shirtless guys, which she took pleasure in staring at, especially Four. But, even she had to notice that his tattoo was pretty cool. It was a bunch of dark black lines, stretching across the expanse of his back, surrounding some symbols that she had no clue what they meant. It was pretty cool, but she would never admit that to his face.

"I have thought of something," Zeke started, once they all had finished up the last set with hearts pounding and sides cramping. "The stages of butterfly are butter-why? butter-cry, and butter-die. I'm at butter-cry right now."

"You're an idiot."

"Thanks, can I have some water?"

Tris rolled her eyes but passed her water bottle over and watched as he downed all of it, spilling some (most) of it into the pool. She really should've been used to this by now.

"Other side, we're gonna do some 25* sprints from the blocks then relays." Coach Steph directed, already heading down with a stopwatch in hand.

They all swam down, pulling themselves out of the water, and no, Tris did not watch Four pull himself out of the pool, water dripping down his pecs and onto his abs. _Gross._

They were all spread out over the 10 blocks as Coach blew the whistle and they hopped up, getting into the ready position. Out of the corner of her eye, Tris could see Four bending down into a diving stance and her grip on the block tightened. Then, Coach blew the whistle and Tris's feet left the block, diving gracefully into the water and immediately breaking out into a dolphin kick. She pulled, stroke after stroke until her hand slammed against the wall and she pulled her head out of the water to hear her time.

"Jason, 9.2. Four, 9.7. Tris 10.1. She groaned and sank into the "warm down" lane. It irritated her that she was almost as fast as Four, just barely grazing his time and the look he gave her was so infuriating that she wanted to punch something, most likely his face.

But she got her payback. Coach must've seen some fire in Tris and put Four and her both as butterfliers, on opposite teams. And Tris was ready to dominate. Zeke was put on her team as well as one of the seniors and a pretty good sophomore. The sophomore, Scarlet, hopped into the pool first, setting up her backstroke start.

When Coach blew the whistle she flew off the wall, pulling up to the water and sprinting into a backstroke. She was pretty good, and hit the wall fast, making it an easy dive for the senior to complete. Which pulled them up to second place against Four's team. The way everyone was screaming and shouting proved how serious they took this, Tris could only imagine what The Games would be like.

Tris hopped up to the blocks, just as the senior made the 25 turn, and pulled her goggles on. In her peripheral vision, she could see Four bending into a dive stance, his teammate hitting the flags*, her teammate following close behind. Tris chose to do a flyover start instead of a regular dive and put her arms out to follow the seniors progress to the wall before throwing herself off the block as he hit it.

She broke out into a dolphin kick and pulled out her first butterfly stroke, keeping her head under as her arms passed over her head and sliced through the water. When she came up for air, she could see Four just a bit in front of her and she pushed herself harder, keeping her head under longer and pushing off the turn hard and fast. She kept pushing herself, pulling harder, kicking faster, and for some reason "Get your head in the game" was stuck in her head, but she kept going and finally, she hit the wall, pulling her head up to see that Zeke had dove off before Four's teammate. The smile that spread across her face was lazy and tired, and she pulled herself out of the water to cheer alongside her relay team. They got second, to Shauna's team which had 2 seniors on it, but they still beat Four so it was a victory.

"Good job," Tris said, holding an arm out to Zeke. He took it, pulling himself out of the water and removing his goggles, giving it a confused face. "What's wrong?"

"I thought my goggles were leaking…but nope, just tears."

Tris laughed and ruffled his hair before pulling her cap off and tucking it into the side of her suit as she untied her hair, letting her wet curls fall against her shoulders.

Then Shauna tackled her. "We won, suckers!"

"I saw Shaunny." Tris deadpanned, but laughed, finally realizing that no matter how shitty things were at practice, they would always find a way to make her feel better. So really, swimming wasn't exactly hell, it was more like 1/2 hell. Plus Coach gave her a nod when she passed, which might not have seemed like much, but it wasn't a scowl like Zeke got so she'll take it.

Shauna and Zeke changed quickly, waiting for Tris to finish before pulling her into a fast sprint to the cafeteria for dinner.

* * *

An hour later, Tris found herself in her room, pounding her head against her calculus book with lots of anger and frustration building up in her chest. Then the sound of a crash came from outside, worried, Tris pushed herself away from the desk and her wretched textbook. She knew that her friends had all went to the common room downstairs, so what she didn't expect to find was Uriah, trying to untangle a lot of different cords from a Wii, and Edward, watching lazily while biting into an apple.

"What the fuck?"

"We're setting the Wii up in the common room," Uriah explained quickly, not letting his eyes drift from the task.

Edward swallowed, eyebrows raised with a smile. "Wanna come? It'll ruin our relationship before it even starts,"

Tris leaned against the wall, oddly aware of her small sleep shorts, baggy t-shirt and messy bun, but didn't let that ruin her cool demeanor. "Sure, I didn't like you that much anyway," She teased. "Just lemme change first."

She quickly pulled on some skinny jeans and a tank top but decided to keep the messy bun. They all walked down the stairs and into the common room, and Tris, who had never been there before, was confused, to say the least.

The room was dim on one side, but on the other side, it was bright, then dark, then bright again, most likely from some fucker playing with the switch. But that ended quickly and both sides were the same shade, and soon her eyes adjusted and the confusion turned to awe. There were vending machines against the walls, charging stations all around, couches, chairs, desks, music playing at a high volume, and a large TV surrounded by a coffee table and an L-shaped couch.

"Hey, nerdddd!" Someone said from behind Tris, and soon she was engulfed by arms and hair was thrown into her face.

"Hi Christina," Tris replied, arms awkwardly pinned to her side.

"Look," Christina said, pulling away quickly and holding out her cup. "Red Solo cups dude, jk it's just soup," She whispered and brought it up to her mouth.

"Wow, very sly."

"I know right."

Edward coughed to her right. "Excuse me, Christina, I have to beat a certain blonde at Mario Cart." He held out his arm to her. Dork.

Tris laughed at him but grabbed the arm. "If you play as well as you trash talk then I'm not worried."

She should've been extremely worried. Within three minutes, there were three cups knocked over, one table kicked, and a bloody nose. Not to mention the multiple screams and projectile pillows.

"You did not just blue shell me mother fucker," Tris said, throwing a disappointed face over at Edward, who was holding a bloody napkin to his face. Just for the record, he's the one who accidentally hit himself with the Wii remote during lap 2, which Tris laughed at until he pulled out the blue shell and turned into a dead man. "No, no, no, fuck you!" Tris screamed when Edward passed the finish line seconds before her. She dropped her Wii remote and sank into the couch cushions, turning to face Edward. "I hate you."

He laughed and stood up, holding his hand out to her. "Sure, c'mon you should finish up your homework, junior."

"Oh wow. That was so good." Tris rolled her eyes but grabbed onto his hand, pulling herself up and walking with him back up to her dorm. "But thank you." She said once they reached the door. "I had a solid 20 minutes of fun, and I definitely needed to get away from my calculus book."

He smiled and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. "Well, I'm glad that I could make your night better."

"So…see you tomorrow?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think that we're getting our quarter partners next art class."

"What's that?"

"Tori puts an artist with a photographer and they would be partners for a quarter. She lets us choose and then pairs up the remaining kids. Usually, everyone is already paired off, except for Four and some other kid."

"So I'm guessing you're gonna be with Myra and I'm stuck with…Four?" Well shit.

"Hmmm…I'm still deciding."

Tris snorted. "What makes you think that I want to be your partner for an entire quarter."

"Simple. Your desperation to get away from Four will cause you to make rash decisions."

"Aww, you go for the desperate girls, how nice."

He blew out a puff of air, his bangs flopping into his face. "You're mean."

"Yup. See you tomorrow." She opened the door but waited for him to reply.

He laughed. "Have a good night."

She flopped onto the couch after, turning her head to see that it was only 9:45 then groaning. She pulled herself out and into her room, settling back into her seat and reopening her calculus book.

* * *

The next day, Edward was waiting outside the art building. He walked her to the far corner, sitting across from her with a smile.

When Tori arrived, she made a small intro the "quarter partners" before listing off the partners. But Tris mainly zoned out until she heard her name.

"Tris and Edward,"

She looked up at him and he winked, so she rolled her eyes in retaliation. Myra looked a bit confused with the situation but seemed okay about it. Tris still felt bad because she ended up partnered with Four, but the weirdly flirty look that Edward was giving her kinda made her forget about it.

"So, you wanna work on our project during lunch? My dorm?"

"Well, um," Tris started. "Sure."

"Sweet, Will will probably be out flirting with Christina, so it'll be just you and me."

Tris laughed and forced a smile. _"Great."_

* * *

okay so confused non swimmers...

a pool is 25 yards, so when they say "do a 25" they essentially are doing 1 length. Just think of it as quarters, a 100 is 4 laps, 150 is 6 laps, etc.

when they say to leave at the "top" it's just the :00 on the clock, swimming practice is usually based off an interval

the 4 strokes are butterfly (which is death), backstroke, breastroke and freestyle.

a "flyover start" is a relay start where instead of bending down and then pushing off, you remaining standing and use your arms to swing your body off the blocks. If you're still confused, google it.

a "100 IM" or a "200 IM" is just all the strokes like a 25 of each stroke or a 50 of each stroke.

hope that helps and make sure to leave a review if you want fourtris already.


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